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In Australia (which has 2 chambers - 1 under this system and the other proportional): It is very difficult for a 3rd voice to gain traction. A party which has

In Australia (which has 2 chambers - 1 under this system and the other proportional): It is very difficult for a 3rd voice to gain traction. A party which has attracted over 10% nationwide for the past 2 decades, Greens, has exactly 1 seat out of 150 under this system. We've had this method of voting for a century but voters generally see it as a binary choice - Roughly 35-40% will vote for A and 35-40% will vote for B. Typically there will be up to 5-10 candidates on the ballot paper. So that 20-30% of the "neither of major 2" could be split 8 ways across a wide political spectrum. Inevitably, most outcomes fall back to the 2 majors.

jacques_chester 8y ago
This is a feature, not a bug. In a Westminster system the government is formed on the floor of the House of Representatives by being able to pass motions of confidence and supply. Australia provides an unusually generous opening for minor parties through the Senate, which is a proportional system. Your statistic about the Greens, in particular, is true only for the House. The Greens hold 9 Senate seats out of 76, or approximately 11% of the Senate. Given that their national Senate vote was 8.7%, I think this is a pretty reasonable outcome.