179
votes
Why don't Democrats and Republicans collude?
I mean, we've had exclusively Democrat or Republican governments for well over 150 years, I'm not sure how else you'd measure "total and perpetual dominance".
- 4,820
119
votes
Accepted
Why are masks a political topic in the US?
David Easton (a major figure in modern political science) defined governance as the 'authoritative allocation of values', meaning that a government decides what values the community it serves will ...
- 57.5k
90
votes
Why does the UK have more political parties than the US?
One reason why the UK has more parties than the US is simply that it is cheaper to compete in the political game.
General election campaigning is effectively limited to four weeks before the election ...
- 2,224
86
votes
Accepted
Why does the UK have more political parties than the US?
Duverger's law says that for a given district in a plurality (first-past-the-post) system, the number of parties will tend towards two.
In the United States, there is an office with a national ...
- 88.7k
84
votes
Accepted
Why did the DNC try to prevent Bernie Sanders from getting the Democratic nomination?
In short, because Democratic Party in USA is roughly split between two factions (I'll label them "progressive" and "establishment" just for the sake of labeling).
FiveThirtyEight covered this split ...
- 90.7k
84
votes
Accepted
Why is there such a partisan divide on confidence in science in the US?
A good explanation might be confirmation bias. Confirmation bias in a nutshell is the psychological phenomenon that people generally tend to trust information which supports their views and distrusts ...
- 71.4k
83
votes
Why don't Democrats and Republicans collude?
Let's imagine that this were to actually happen. Major members of the two parties realized that what you said was true, and that if they could cooperate then they would totally and completely dominate ...
- 14k
79
votes
Why are "the rich" more able to identify the party which represent their interests than "the poor"?
Why are “the rich” more able to identify the party which represent their interests than “the poor”?
Mostly, because your assumption is just that, an assumption, and is an incorrect one at that.
...
- 90.7k
74
votes
Why isn't there a serious attempt at creating a third mass-appeal party in the US?
Because the two main parties absorb emergent third parties
Any time any third party starts to get serious traction in the United States, it eventually will find one of the major parties shifting its ...
- 15.4k
73
votes
Why are "the rich" more able to identify the party which represent their interests than "the poor"?
There are so many false assumptions in your question. But one that wasn't addressed by the other answers is this:
There are a lot of people who vote based on their moral principles. Whether rich or ...
- 2,391
72
votes
Accepted
What is the perception of European parties in the US?
Does the American public know, that their perception of left and right
is is skewed and right-shifted in comparison to many other Western
countries?
The American public is mostly oblivious to the ...
- 65.2k
66
votes
Why did the DNC try to prevent Bernie Sanders from getting the Democratic nomination?
The idea that the DNC "rigged" the primaries is false.
I voted Bernie in the primary, too, but it is very important not to take the claim in the WikiLeaks graphic at face value.
This July ...
- 6,052
64
votes
Accepted
Does the US political system, in principle, allow for a no-party system?
George Washington said:
However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, ...
- 88.7k
60
votes
Accepted
Has politics always been so polarized?
Polarisation is not entirely new, but it’s not a constant either. Looking just at US national politics, there have been other periods of very strong polarisation (e.g. the late 19th century, ...
- 1,056
59
votes
Accepted
Why did political parties form in the United States?
A safeguard WAS put into place. We call it the Electoral College (although it is not named as such in the Constitution). It failed miserably at that goal.
The original vision when the Electoral ...
- 11.5k
59
votes
Why are masks a political topic in the US?
Why are masks political?
Because the handling of the pandemic has become a political issue. The President took a clear position. In a bipartisan, hyperpartisan climate, loyalists of the President must ...
- 97.3k
57
votes
Why do veterans skew right in the US?
The modern US military is self-selecting — a professional army, not a conscripted one — so I doubt this effect would hold true historically. But as a rule, the political Right tends to value military ...
- 57.5k
54
votes
Accepted
Could a US political party gain complete control over the government by removing checks & balances?
Institutions and constitutional arrangements are important as they provide a buffer against temporary excesses, but the ultimate check is civil society, really. Otherwise look at Hungary, Turkey, etc. ...
- 126k
54
votes
Accepted
How far can gerrymandering go?
This is a rather simple mathematical exercise. If you allow me total freedom to draw districts within the current requirements, I can place anyone in any district I want provided they have equal ...
- 1,794
54
votes
Why does Trump want a citizenship question on the census?
I think the best is for you to dive into the following two podcasts (both have a transcript) of Chris Hayes interviewing Dale Ho, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit (and won) against the Trump ...
- 30.4k
54
votes
Accepted
Why has no party ever won a majority in Israel?
Israel's elections are based on nation-wide proportional representation. Specifically, that means there are no local districts in which candidates run.
Your assertion that many parliamentary ...
JJJ♦
- 38.2k
54
votes
Why do one-party states still have a party at all?
While it needn't be this way, per se, political parties and the government are often separate institutions as a matter of having different operational objectives.
The job of the government is to run ...
- 16.3k
49
votes
Has politics always been so polarized?
Personal animosity between political opponents is widespread and historic. It is particularly common in democracies.
In an oligarchical or dictatorial state, power and influence depends on your ...
- 106k
47
votes
Accepted
The politicization of the supreme court
How political parties view things is not necessarily commensurate with reality. After all, they have a political agenda to push. In this case the view of (federal) judges—Supreme Court Justices or ...
- 15.7k
45
votes
Why does partisanship trump concerns about hypocrisy with voters?
Short answer: everybody hates somebody, and by extension that person/group's cherished pet cause.
Seriously. Consider the following conversation:
Person A: Hey there gun owner, did you know that you ...
- 8,589
44
votes
What does "bipartisan support" mean in the United States?
This is entirely dependent on the speaker. But in general senior politicians who have passed legislation are happy to call it Bipartisan on the basis on a single vote.
Nancy Pelosi claimed to have 275 ...
- 22.7k
41
votes
Accepted
Can an American state ban a (minor) political party?
A state cannot ban a political party for being a political party, no. This would run headlong into the 1st Amendment so hard it would go viral on TikTok.
There are a number of ways that a majority ...
- 16.3k
39
votes
Accepted
Philosophically what is the difference between stimulus checks and tax breaks?
Discounting the surrounding flora, your question seems to be fairly clear: what's the difference between tax breaks and stimulus checks? (It becomes less clear when introducing the word "...
- 733
37
votes
Accepted
Has a sitting US president ever been denied their party's nomination for a second term?
In terms of not achieving the nomination of their party due to losing the primary contests directly, no. However, there have been times when the incumbent president seeking re-election has pulled out ...
CDJB♦
- 96.2k
37
votes
Why are masks a political topic in the US?
Mask vs Mask
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) like N95 masks are always effective against airborne transmitted diseases (when properly used). They were designed for that reason. Any other kind of ...
- 42.8k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible