Duverger's Law, Fusion, and the Decline of American "Third" Parties

Abstract

has been strongly emphasized. It is argued that the statewideplurality method of electing a president and governors, plus the singlemember-district-plurality method of electing national and state legislators, have made third party growth unlikely. This assessment of the consequence of the plurality election method has also been stressed by students of comparative politics. In that context it has been referred to by Riker (1982) and others as Duverger's Law. There is, however, a way by which the obstacles presented to a minor party by a plurality election system can be minimized; that method is jointly sponsored candidacies. Today in Great Britain the two smallest parties, the Liberals and Social Democrats, divide the parliamentary districts between them and advise the electorate that a vote for a candidate of either