POL 2 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Bicameralism, French Fourth Republic, Presidential System
Document Summary
Two-party system b/c smdp is restrictive and the one huge national election that parties compete in makes it harder for third parties/small parties to win. Either one party controls congress and presidency (1 veto player) or one party controls one or both chambers of congress and other controls presidency. Positive: no extreme parties; makes it hard for a single institution to railroad a lot of legislation; short terms; high accountability. Negative: gridlock is likely, thus policymaking is hard to accomplish; difficult to hold legislature accountable for gridlock, so power shifts to executive. Negative: difficult to maintain stability; coalitions of multiple parties necessary to get things done. Positive: government stability and highly efficient policymaking. Positive: compromise and broad representation; parties in government are. Negative: as number of parties, accountability becomes harder and governments accountable for policymaking become unstable. From 1946 to 1958, there were two different pms on average per year.
