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This 5 page paper explains Duverger’s Law and how it can be used to explain party systems, and why it may no longer be a suitable model. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
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5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: KV32_HVduvrgr.rtf
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are created. Discussion Duvergers Law was formulated in 1954 and states that "countries with single-member plurality would tend to have two parties, while those with proportional representation would tend to
have more than two parties" (Clough, 2007, p. 531). According to Duverger, much of the voting for any given candidate depends on whether or not that person can win, or
if voters perceive they will be "wasting" their votes if they cast their ballot for someone whos bound to lose (Clough, 2007). A single-member plurality is a voting system is
familiar to Americans since it is the system currently used to elect members to the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as the legislatures of many states (Single-member districts). In
this system, a region is divided "into a number of geographically defined voting districts, each represented by a single elected official" (Single-member districts). Voters are allowed to vote only for
the person representing their district (or challenging the incumbent in their district), with the winner being the person who gets the most votes (Single-member districts). A winner in this type
of election doesnt need a majority, all they need to do is get more votes than anyone else running for the office (Single-member districts). There are several problems created by
this "winner-take-all" method of voting, which are reflected in Duvergers formulation of his theories. First, the way the boundaries of any given district are drawn can have a huge impact
on the outcome of an election, a problem that has resulted in "gerrymandering" (Single-member districts). Gerrymandering is the process of redrawing the boundary lines of a district to skew the
vote in favor of one party by including large numbers of registered voters of that party inside the lines (Single-member districts). Second, single-member districts are prone to the "spoiler dynamic"
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