The American presidential election of 2008 saw, as expected, a shutout victory for the Democratic candidate. Only a handful of times has a second party won any state or gained above 20% of the vote since the coup of 1933.
The United States is unusual among the world’s governments in that one-party rule coexists with truly democratic government – and no, that isn’t a pun on the party name.
By 1933, the 19th century two party system was on the decline, as the main opposition party of the time – the Republican Party – was like its predecessors, the Whigs and Federalists, fading into irrelevance. However, this time, a cabal of party, business, and military leaders were determined to take radical steps to prevent this, leading to the attempted coup of 1933, where paramilitary groups supported by the plotters marched on the White House and were put down by capital police and the loyal Washington military garrison. The investigation which followed implicated almost every major Republican political figure, resulting in the already-diminished party being again decimated in the elections of 1934 and 1936. By the start of the Second World War, the Republican party was functionally extinct.
But even after this, as the old joke goes, the United States was not under the complete control of an organized political party. The immediate postwar period saw chaos and a series of general election defections by unsatisfied factions, but later reforms by party leaders created a system which allowed a more open and democratic selection of the nominee, keeping the party together. A variant of this system survives to this day as the main competitive national election.
For the most part, these selection processes remain individually based, though ideologically-similar candidates continue to share campaign resources and infrastructure in primary campaigns at all levels. Most of this activity is informal or organized through private political action committees, but a rough approximation of ideological breakdown can be seen through constantly-developing congressional caucuses. Ideologically-based caucuses in 2008 included:
Progressive – Socially and economically left, though much younger, more urban, and weaker than in the past. Chaired by Peter DeFazio (D, OR-4), endorsed Obama.
Blue Collar – Labor-oriented left, more socially moderate than the Progressives. Mostly Midwestern and Plains-based. Chaired by Dennis Kucinich (D, OH-10), did not endorse, members split between Obama and Landrieu.
Fair Deal – Moderate liberals, business-friendly but open to increased regulation. Primarily Northeastern and West Coast. Chaired by Joe Crowley (D, NY-14), endorsed Landrieu.
Main Street – Business moderates, socially centrist. Mostly northeastern and upper Midwestern. Chaired by Pat Tiberi (D, OH-12), endorsed Romney.
American Leadership – socially conservative, economically center-right, hawkish. Has roots in the Northern conservative ‘Bourbon’ tradition, now concentrated in the Midwest, Plains, and Mountain West. Chaired by Mike Pence (D, IN-6), did not endorse, members split between McCain and Huckabee.
Yellow Dogs – socially reactionary, economically populist. Descendent of the States Rights faction of the 1950s and 60s, remains largely Southern. Chaired by Tom Price (D, GA-6), endorsed Huckabee.
This unique system has provided an example which has eased the process of democratization in former one-party dictatorships, particularly in the Eastern Bloc. By far the most successful example is the Soviet Union, where the general election structures have remained much as they have been since the Stalinist era, but candidate selection within the Party has become much more democratic. Notably, in 2005, an alliance of moderate and liberal candidates was able to prevent the hardline candidate, Ryzhkov, from gaining control of the party.
This is not to say that the dominant-party republican system ensures stability, even in its home country. The 2016 American election saw a coalition of conservative-leaning candidates successfully nominating Sam Brownback despite having fewer popular votes in the primary than the left-leaning alliance between Amy Klobuchar and Doug Jones, as a result of the bonus delegates rule for first-place finishers.
In response, Jones launched an independent campaign which won five states and 23% of the popular vote, the largest general election defection since 1992.
Time will tell whether Jones’ post-election attempts to create a competing party structure will put any pressure on the Democratic establishment to reform the nomination system, though what is near certain is that there is little chance of him overturning the two-hundred-year dominance of the Democratic Party, no matter how much momentum his movement might seem to have today.
Background: Inspired by the Three Governors controversy in Georgia - in which there was real competition in the Democratic primary despite essential one-party rule. I wanted to explore what such a system would look like on the national level - initially, this was just going to be the one Soviet box, but I liked the idea of the bait-and-switch created by the first box, so I went and made some background for an American case as well.