Is lobbying to blame for the two party system in the United States?

by Livid-Guava2779
belisariusd

No. The United States has effectively had a two party system from the founding of the country, with the Federalist and Anti-Federalist parties. This is largely a product of the electoral system itself: the "First Past the Post" system which allows whichever candidate who gets more votes to win 100% of the power. (In other words, you vote in a Congressional, Senatorial, or Presidential race, you have a choice between multiple candidates, and one of those candidates wins and as a consequence of winning gets 100% of the power. There's no prize for coming in second.)

The effect of this is every candidate needs to appeal to as many voters as possible. In the event you have a third party, it's really difficult (just mathematically) to compete, and you're likely to split your vote with other candidates who share some, if not all, of your political priorities. This reduces the chance any of you have of winning.

So everyone is incentivized to group together in "parties" that are as large as possible, because even if that means you don't get everything you want from a given candidate, getting some of what you want is better than getting none of it. And third parties are incentivized to align with one of the two major parties for the same reason, and end up absorbed.

Another article talking about this very issue can be found here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/04/27/why-are-there-only-two-parties-in-american-politics/

But ultimately it just comes down to the simple reality that "First Past the Post" or "Winner Take All" electoral strategies have a two party equilibrium.