Virtually all academic books on American third parties in the last half-century assume that they have largely disappeared. This book challenges that orthodoxy by explaining the (temporary) decline of third parties, demonstrating through the latest evidence that they are enjoying a resurgence, and arguing that they are likely to once again play a significant role in American politics. The book is based on a wealth of data, including district-level results from US House of Representatives elections, state-level election laws after the Civil War, and recent district-level election results from Australia, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom.
Introduction: A Third-Party Revival?
Chapter 1 Unraveling the Conundrum of Third-Party Decline
Chapter 2 Duvergers Law and the American Electoral System
Chapter 3 The Impact of Ballot Access Laws
Chapter 4 The Prohibition of Fusion
Chapter 5 Do Primaries Undermine Third Parties?
Chapter 6 Co-optation and Third-Party Waves
Chapter 7 The Decline and Rise of Political Polarization
Chapter 8 The Evolution of Party Resources
Conclusion: A Reemergence of Third Parties?
Bibliography
Praise for The Demise and Rebirth of American Third Parties
Backed by stunning scholarship, Bernard Tamas boldly encounters and deconstructs one of the prize shibboleths of political science: that the United States is a two-party system, full stop. Sensitive both to the reigning arguments that assume permanent major-party hegemony and to hangdog efforts to showcase third parties, Tamas focuses on two critical factors that herald a new era of third party growth: rising polarization and the media revolution that gives third parties hitherlS¦
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