<P> Herein lies the central tension of the two--party doctrine . It identifies popular sovereignty with choice, and then limits choice to one party or the other . If there is any truth to Schattschneider's analogy between elections and markets, America's faith in the two--party system begs the following question: Why do voters accept as the ultimate in political freedom a binary option they would surely protest as consumers?...This is the tyranny of the two--party system, the construct that persuades United States citizens to accept two--party contests as a condition of electoral democracy . </P> <P> There have been arguments that the winner - take - all mechanism discourages independent or third - party candidates from running for office or promulgating their views . Ross Perot's former campaign manager wrote that the problem with having only two parties is that the nation loses "the ability for things to bubble up from the body politic and give voice to things that aren't being voiced by the major parties ." One analyst suggested that parliamentary systems, which typically are multi-party in nature, lead to a better "centralization of policy expertise" in government . Multi-party governments permit wider and more diverse viewpoints in government, and encourage dominant parties to make deals with weaker parties to form winning coalitions . While there is considerable debate about the relative merits of a constitutional arrangement such as that of the United States versus a parliamentary arrangement such as Britain, analysts have noted that most democracies around the world have chosen the British multi-party model . Analyst Chris Weigant of the Huffington Post wrote that "the parliamentary system is inherently much more open to minority parties getting much better representation than third parties do in the American system". After an election in which the party changes, there can be a "polar shift in policy - making" when voters react to changes . </P> <P> Political analyst A.G. Roderick, writing in his book Two Tyrants, argued that the two American parties, the Republicans and Democrats, are highly unpopular in 2015, and are not part of the political framework of state governments, and do not represent 47% of the electorate who identify themselves as "independents". He makes a case that the American president should be elected on a non-partisan basis, and asserts that both political parties are "cut from the same cloth of corruption and corporate influence ." </P> <P> The two - party system, in the sense of the looser definition, where two parties dominate politics but in which third parties can elect members and gain some representation in the legislature, can be traced to the development of political parties in the United Kingdom . There was a division in English politics at the time of the Civil War and Glorious Revolution in the late 17th century . The Whigs supported Protestant constitutional monarchy against absolute rule and the Tories, originating in the Royalist (or "Cavalier") faction of the English Civil War, were conservative royalist supporters of a strong monarchy as a counterbalance to the republican tendencies of Parliament . In the following century, the Whig party's support base widened to include emerging industrial interests and wealthy merchants . </P>

The two-party system in america leads to the creation of political parties that are