Why Third Parties Struggle in U.S. Elections
Minor parties face both institutional and strategic barriers. The central institutional barrier is the single-member plurality district: one candidate wins the seat, and finishing second yields no representation. A party can receive a meaningful share of votes spread across many districts while winning none. Presidential competition also awards one office and usually requires geographically broad […]
The Expansion of Voting Rights in the United States
The original Constitution did not announce a single national set of voter qualifications. For elections to the House, it generally connected the federal electorate to the qualifications for the most numerous branch of each state’s legislature. States therefore played the leading role in defining the early electorate, and many used property, taxpaying, race, sex, or […]
