2 ms·

So as long as there are some seats going to other parties, you don't care if there's an uninterrupted streak of two dominant major parties such that one of them

So as long as there are some seats going to other parties, you don't care if there's an uninterrupted streak of two dominant major parties such that one of them always forms and leads the government? Because that is the case in many countries, even countries which don't do FPTP, even countries which do things that people argue are good electorally, and that does not seem like a categorical improvement over what happens in, say, the US.

dragonwriter 10y ago
> Because that is the case in many countries, even countries which don't do FPTP, No, it's emphatically not, especially if you mean exclusively forms the government (not in a coalition.) And, if you don't mean that, it's pretty substantially weaker than the duopoly in the US. Heck, even FPTP systems that aren't also Presidential systems (another structural factor that reduces competitive parties) generally don't do what you describe, at least in the form of exclusively non-coalition governments. > and that does not seem like a categorical improvement over what happens in, say, the US. Whether the difference is merely a substantial quantitative improvement with some creatively-defined common category or a categorical improvement is ultimately immaterial.