164 PART Two • The PolITIcs of AmeRIcAn DemocRAcy
Plurality
A number of votes cast for
a candidate that is greater
than the number of votes
for any other candidate
but not necessarily a
majority.
Electoral College
A group of persons, called
electors, who are selected
by the voters in each state.
This group officially elects
the president and the vice
president of the United
States.
Unit Rule
A rule by which all of a
state’s electoral votes are
cast for the presidential
candidate who receives
a plurality of the votes in
that state.The winner-Take-All electoral system
At almost every level of government in the United States, the outcome of elections is
based on the plurality, winner-take-all principle. In a plurality system, the winner is the
person who obtains the most votes, even if that person does not receive a majority (more
than 50 percent) of the votes. Whoever gets the most votes gets everything. Most legisla-
tors in the United States are elected from single-member districts in which only one person
represents the constituency, and the candidate who finishes second in such an election
receives nothing for the effort.Presidential voting. The winner-take-all system also operates in the election of the
U.S. president. Recall that the voters in each state do not vote for a president directly but
vote for electoral college delegates who are committed to the various presidential can-
didates. These delegates are called electors.
In all but two states (Maine and Nebraska), if a presidential candidate wins a plurality
in the state, then all of the state’s electoral votes go to that candidate. This is known as the
unit rule. For example, suppose that the electors pledged to a particular presidential can-
didate receive a plurality of 40 percent of the votes in a state. That presidential candidate
will receive all of the state’s votes in the Electoral College. Minor parties have a difficult
time competing under such a system. Because voters know that minor parties cannot win
any electoral votes, they often will not vote for minor-party candidates, even if the candi-
dates are in tune with them ideologically.Popular election of the Governors and the President. In most of Europe, the chief
executive (usually called the prime minister) is elected by the legislature, or parliament. If
the parliament contains three or more parties, as is usually the situation, two or more of
the parties can join together in a coalition to choose the prime minister and the other lead-
ers of the government. In the United States, however, the people elect the president and
the governors of all fifty states. There is no opportunity for two or more parties to negoti-
ate a coalition. Here, too, the winner-take-all principle discriminates powerfully against
any third party.Proportional Representation. Many other nations use a system of proportional rep-
resentation with multimember districts. If, during the national election, party X obtains
12 percent of the vote, party Y gets 43 percent of the vote, and party Z gets the remaining
45 percent of the vote, then party X gets 12 percent of the seats in the legislature, party Y
gets 43 percent of the seats, and party Z gets 45 percent of the seats. Because even a
minor party may still obtain at least a few seats in the legislature, smaller parties have a
greater incentive to organize under such electoral systems than they do in the United
States.state and federal laws favoring the Two Parties
Many state and federal election laws offer a clear advantage to the two major parties. In
some states, the established major parties need to gather fewer signatures to place their
candidates on the ballot than minor parties or independent candidates do. The criterion
for determining how many signatures will be required is often based on the total party
vote in the last general election, thus penalizing a new political party that did not compete
in that election.
At the national level, minor parties face different obstacles. All of the rules and pro-
cedures of both chambers of Congress divide committee seats, staff members, and other
privileges on the basis of party membership. A legislator who is elected on a minor-partyCopyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.