Ebook: The Tyranny of the Two-Party System

Students of American government (especially undergraduates) usually encounter the two-party system as a given: inevitable, immutable, American-as-apple-pie. This book does an outstanding job of showing how the system we currently have is the product of a series of political choices and circumstances, even beyond the impact of single-member districts and winner-take-all elections most commonly recognized in political science. The book uses the case of electoral fusion as a central focus, but the value of the book is broader than that. It shows, in very scholarly fashion, how the rules, ideology and political culture of our current system was created, and thus destroys the illusion that what we have now is inevitable and eternal. While the book isn't exactly "light" reading (Disch's training as a political theorist is obvious, and it serves the book well), it is very well-written. It will be most accessible to those readers with a bit of political science background.