ABSTRACT

A number of diffuse elements make up what is usually known as the American party ‘organization’. There are two major parties which operate successfully within the American political system, as indeed there have been for most of the nation’s history. In addition to the national party system, the United States has fifty other state party systems in which there is a great variety of partisan competition. In the vast majority of states, the two major parties contest most important political offices and the extent of competition depends upon the particular traditions and social composition of the individual states. When one considers the heterogeneity of the United States and the diversity of social, ethnic and regional interests, it is perhaps surprising that there are only two major parties. Multi-party systems are, in fact, more common in liberal democracies than two-party structures, and one could reasonably expect that America would exhibit the former pattern of competition.