this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2024
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It's unfortunate that the US founding fathers were well educated, but from a time 200 years before Game Theory was understood.
Duverger's Law says that in a first-past-the-post system, you'll eventually end up with 2 political parties. And, 2 political parties is a terrible state for a country.
Also, you're eventually going to get political parties even if you try to ban them. They'll just become "clubs" or something. A group of people agreeing to act together (say a union) is always going to have more power than a bunch of people acting individually.
I would hope that any country thinking of creating a new political system, or making major updates to theirs would hire a lot of game theorists to figure out how the rules could be abused and what the system might look like in 250 years.
It should be pointed out Duverger's law really only applies to the US because the electoral college system make it fragile to third parties. Many countries with FPTP still have large 3rd parties (such as Canada)
It's the combination of FPTP voting and the presidential government structure.
In a parliamentary system third parties are more viable because they can act as "king maker" to one of the two larger parties.
Of course a proportional voting system like STV is even better for party diversity.