Re: Are two parties enough?

Description: Lemann explains why we have two parties, and why it probably won�t change.

Question: Are two parties enough?

Transcript: You know in my native Southland, we had a saying. You know, “If frogs had wings, they wouldn’t bump their ass so much.” So it’s kind of like that. It would be great to have more than two parties. You know it’s very easy to sit here and say, “No. Two parties aren’t enough. We must have three parties or four parties.” Fine, but we’re not going to. So that’s . . . You know that should be the caveat on my answer. I just . . . I am constantly amazed by how sort of robust and survivable the two major parties are; and how little any meaningful challenge of them ever gets going. And so I would be immensely surprised if when my kids are my age, there actually are three or four major parties.

Question: Why have they survives so long?

Transcript: Well partly it’s sort of this aforementioned Coke and Pepsi phenomenon. And partly it’s that they are willing to be flexible. You know not out of . . . not out of any altruism just because they wanna win. The down . . . In my lifetime the Republican party was pronounced dead after Goldwater lost in 1964, and then it sort of came back to life. And the Democratic party has been pronounced dead several times, and it has come back to life several times. Bill Clinton essentially resurrected the Democratic party in many ways. So it’s that. It’s kind of market behavior by the parties – that they’re willing to . . . they wanna win so much that they’re willing to sort of figure out where the voters are and go there.

Question: Why do we only have two parties?

Transcript: Many countries . . . sort of First World countries have two major parties, so we’re not the only one. If you have a parliamentary system, there’s more of an incentive to have minor parties because they have more of a sort of seat at the table. But the way our system is designed, not being a parliamentary system in the way Congress is organized, and most of the state legislatures . . . all the state legislatures, it really pushes you toward a two party system. Because if you are a party that regularly gets 15 percent of the vote, there’s nothing much for you. Whereas if you have a parliamentary system there is something . . . You know you can have that . . . If you’re in Italy you can have . . . or in Israel, or in another country that’s a parliamentary system, you have 15 percent of the seats in the national legislature, and that’s a very powerful body, you’ve really got something. But 15 percent doesn’t do much for you in the United States.

Recorded on: 11/30/07