For most of American history, the United States has been primarily a two party

political system. Some might argue that the current events happening in Washington DC
with the government shutdown shows that as of the past few years, the United States has
actually become a multiparty political system than!s to the "ea #arty. $eing that %&ve
lived not only in the United States but also in 'ermany, %&ve been privy to seeing the
benefits of both twoparty systems at wor! as well as multiparty systems at wor!. "he
United States as % see it, has many benefits to being a twoparty system, some of which
include( the ability to enact change peacefully if there is a disagreement in regards to how
the country is being run, and having more than one view of issues that effect all
Americans while being able to voice those views. )ne ma*or disadvantage to having a bi
party system as opposed to say a uniparty system is that it can lead to issues where
politicians ta!e a hard line on their political stance and refuse to wor! as a bipartisan
group for the common good +see our current budget crisis,.
Since the US has two main political parties, the Democrats and the -epublicans, it
can in theory, ma!e it much easier for lawma!ers and their constituents to have laws that
they .believe in. get passed. "his also allows for the change of power if a ma*ority of
people are unhappy with how the government is being run. Unli!e countries such as
Cuba or /orth 0orea, where there is a one party system, it truly allows for a democratic
way of doing things. "he biggest problem with one party systems, is that the ruling party
decides what is good for everyone instead of allowing for the people to decide what they
want. "his opens the door for far more corruption and since the people don&t really have a
voice or a way to demand change, they are forced to accept whatever the government
decides. %n the past few elections here in the United States we&ve seen why a two party
system is good. With both of our last two presidents we&ve seen people sway the power
within the senate and congress in order to balance power so that one party didn&t become
too powerful in terms of creating laws. During both 'eorge W. $ush and $arrac!
)bama&s presidencies there have been times where people disagreed with what each
president was doing and too! action accordingly. "his is much easier with only two
parties to choose from because it ensures that only one of two parties is going to get a
ma*ority and thus retain power.
%f the United States were to have a multiparty system li!e 'ermany, it could
potentially be much harder to enact change within the government via the balance of
power. We are currently getting a taste of what could happen if the US was a multiparty
system via the budget crisis in Washington. When there are multiple parties to choose
from li!e in 'ermany, % believe that it dilutes the power to enact change. Although some
parties with e1treme views only hold a small amount of power, that little bit of power can
be the difference between passing legislation and not passing legislation. So while it
might be good to have multiple parties based strictly on having more choices, % feel that
it&s not always for the common good when there are multiple different political parties
within a government which in essence, can detract from getting wor! done. With only
two parties to choose from, it ma!es it so that there is a much higher li!elihood that
legislation is going to be passed via the ma*ority instead of having a split where 234 of
one party vote for something, 234 of another party vote for something and the remaining
534 is spread amongst all of the smaller parties.
%n theory, a biparty system should wor! perfectly, but as we&ve seen, it does not
always wor! that way. $ased on how our government is run, there is always the chance
that one party is going to hold a ma*ority of the power for at least one voting cycle and
that can effect the government in both a negative in positive way. $ut still, with a biparty
system, we as Americans avoid becoming a communist entity where the people have no
say in government, and we also avoid the dilution of power that ta!es place when there
are three or more parties li!e there are in countries such as 'ermany and 6ngland. %n the
end though, it really depends on the goals of a country and how they ma!e their political
system wor!. % don&t feel that there is a one si7e fits all type of political system that will
wor! for every country around the world. We&re still a very young country compared to
places li!e China, but the founding fathers !new that if we were to succeed as a country,
there was no way we could end up being ruled by *ust one power. "he United States has
definitely shifted away from being *ust a strictly biparty system li!e it was with the
Federalists and -epublicans, but up until recently, those two parties have been the bread
and butter of our political system. Although the "ea #arty is considered by some to be an
e1tremist e1tension of the -epublican #arty, the events of the past two wee!s have shown
that in a way they are their own subparty that can effect both of our two ma*or parties be
it in a positive or negative way. With things as they stand however, % have a feeling that
the American people will hold the "ea #arty accountable for what has happened and we
will return to a true biparty system come the ne1t elections.