Tolkien's political views

[Marwhini]

Originally Posted by Belegorn

Even though the U.S. is a republic, what's interesting is that for quite some time we've had a kind of inherited government with the two Parties. Like the House of D and the House of R, but the two Houses are constantly vying for power.

Just as a point of technicality.

The USA has two Parties for the same reasons that gravity exists.

And I am not talking about the mass of the Earth.

I am talking about because of the Physical Structure of the world.

We have Two Parties because of a Property of Political Science called "Duverger's Law."

It is a Law of Political Science in the same way that Newton's Laws are Laws of Physics, Aufbau's Laws are Laws of Chemistry, and Mendel's Law is a Law of Biology/Genetics.

Duverger's Law determines the number of VIABLE Political Parties that will exist given:

1) The Electoral Laws of a Government.
2) The Population Demographics and Geographical Ethnic Concentration/Distribution.
3) The Type of Government (Federal or Parliamentary).

In the USA, that number is currently TWO.

So....

The number of Parties is a Structural Property, and not something that anyone sat around and asked:

"How many Political Parties should we have?"

We can no more decide to have another number of Viable Political Parties in the USA than we can decide to fly by flapping our arms like bird-wings.

MB