Question

One reason the United States has a two-party system is that________
a. the Constitution created the two-party system.
b. Americans share few of the same basic ideals, principles, and beliefs.
c. the nation has sharp political divisions based on economic class, social status, and national origin.
d. much of American election law is written to discourage non-major party candidates.

Answer 1

is this an AP gov test lol

Answer 2

lol yes , and I couldn't figure out 2 questions !

Answer 3

a. the Constitution created the two-party system.

Answer 4

But hold on

Answer 5

yea it is A

Answer 6

The U.S. political system is based on what political scientists call a single-member district plurality (SMDP). That’s a fancy way of saying that the U.S. elects representatives from particular districts, with the person who gets the most votes in a district (also called a plurality) winning the seat. Each district is winner-take-all, and votes in one district have no effect on other districts. Presidential elections, though nationwide contests, are likewise really state-by-state races, thanks to the Electoral College, in which every state except Maine and Nebraska awards all of its electoral votes to whichever candidate wins a plurality of the state’s votes.
In the 1950s, the French sociologist Maurice Duverger observed that stable two-party systems often develop spontaneously in places that use single-member district pluralities. Political scientists now refer to this tendency as "Duverger’s Law."
The reasons here are mainly statistical. Third parties may have statistically significant support (maybe 15 percent of voters in every district supports a third party). But in an SMDP system, the third party may well not win any seats. So those voters will likely join with another party and look for a compromise candidate that could represent them. Similarly, suppose that a district has 200,000 conservative voters and 110,000 liberal voters. One would expect a conservative candidate to be elected. But if two conservative parties each run a candidate, then a liberal candidate may well be elected – unless the conservative parties unite behind a single candidate.
– Joe Miller
i found this :D

Answer 7

Or you could just look up da constitution in text and find it :O

Answer 8

:P

Answer 9

thanks guys !

Answer 10

wait

Answer 11

what?

Answer 12

Yeah same....

Answer 13

I actually think the two parties might have been formed after the constittution

Answer 14

its not in the constitution -_-

Answer 15

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-party_system

Answer 16

i kinda think its B because there are two main different views, thus two main political parties. The democrat party wants to change everything about America and make it like Europe....I don't know why. The Republican party tends to want to keep America the way it traditionally has been, and minimize government interference in the lives of those who take care of themselves (as apposed to those who don't, they want government interference to take care of them).

Answer 17

There are several reasons why, in some systems, two major parties dominate the political landscape. There has been speculation that a two-party system arose in the United States from early political battling between the federalists and anti-federalists in the first few decades after the ratification of the Constitution, according to several views.[1][22] In addition, there has been more speculation that the winner-takes-all electoral system as well as particular state and federal laws regarding voting procedures helped to cause a two-party system.[1]

Voting ballot.

In a two-party system, voters have mostly two options; in this sample ballot for an election in Summit, New Jersey, voters can choose between a Republican or Democrat, but there are no third party candidates.


Economist Jeffrey D. Sachs.
Political scientists such as Maurice Duverger[23] and William H. Riker claim that there are strong correlations between voting rules and type of party system. Jeffrey D. Sachs agreed that there was a link between voting arrangements and the effective number of parties. Sachs explained how the First Past The Post voting arrangement tended to promote a two-party system:

Answer 18

so is it A? or?

Answer 19

lol nuuu it is from the constitution lmao

Answer 20

A is not true
B. Is sort of an opinion

Answer 21

two of washingtons advisers didnt agree blah blah blah its the constitution

Answer 22

I thought it was C, but couldn't find any proof.

Answer 23

http://www.apstudynotes.org/us-history/topics/development-of-the-two-party-system/ read some of that

Answer 24

thanks, again !

Answer 25

Both Jefferson’s and Hamilton’s political views represented public opinion. What began as a personal dispute between the two men evolved into the formation of primitive political parties. Jeffersonians shared the belief in a strict interpretation of the Constitution, while Hamiltonians accepted a broad interpretation.

Answer 26

np :)