Beyond the often inane tribalism of the US duopoly parties, I think there are a couple of contributing issues in today's world vs that of, say, 100 or more years ago.
One is constituency size.
A seat in the British or Canadian Commons, as well as German Bundestag, French Chamber of Deputies etc., represents 100K people or a little more.
In the US House, you're representing 800K people. Huge difference and a marginalizer, too.
At the time the House membership was frozen, that was 200K. And, before WWI, we did occasionally have minor party or independent Congressmen.
Two is, of course, the strong-presidential system combined with the Electoral College structure.
“If nobody is able to influence the parties, what influences the parties?”
Doesn’t Thomas Ferguson’s “Golden Rule” (aka Investment Theory) provide a pretty plausible answer to this question?
Great piece.
Beyond the often inane tribalism of the US duopoly parties, I think there are a couple of contributing issues in today's world vs that of, say, 100 or more years ago.
One is constituency size.
A seat in the British or Canadian Commons, as well as German Bundestag, French Chamber of Deputies etc., represents 100K people or a little more.
In the US House, you're representing 800K people. Huge difference and a marginalizer, too.
At the time the House membership was frozen, that was 200K. And, before WWI, we did occasionally have minor party or independent Congressmen.
Two is, of course, the strong-presidential system combined with the Electoral College structure.