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Increasingly ‘Irrational’ Party Systems: Evidence that There Are Increasingly More Than Two Parties at the District Level

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2013

Christopher D. Raymond
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Abstract

Recent work has noted an increase in the number of parties at the national level in both proportional and majoritarian electoral systems. While the conventional wisdom maintains that the incentives provided by the electoral system will prevent the number of parties at the district level from exceeding two in majoritarian systems, the evidence presented here demonstrates otherwise. I argue that this has occurred because the number of cleavages articulated by parties has increased as several third parties have begun articulating cleavages that are not well represented by the two larger parties.

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Articles
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Government and Opposition , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , October 2013 , pp. 506 - 525
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 2013 

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Footnotes

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Christopher D. Raymond is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of New Orleans. Contact email: [email protected].

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