Quoth hrearden: > Is that why and how the Democratic and Republican parties have > succeeded?
That depends on what you mean by "have." In the current system, the Democratic and Republican parties succeed by rigorously co-opting blocs of voters who like parts of their platform and are willing to live with the parts they don't like. That same process accounts _partially_ for their success over the long term. There were other factors, too, which went into _creating_ the system that made that process key to electoral victory -- implementing the Australian ballot, passing restrictive ballot access laws, etc. In other electoral systems, it's possible to exclude support on the basis of ideological "purity" and still attain some electoral success because of proportional representation systems and such -- minor parties can get a seat or two in the legislature reflective of their actual support, and then choose to engage, or not engage, in coalitions that create the executive branch makeup. In the US, "first past the post" elections keep that from happening. Tom Knapp ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
