Do Americans need more parties?

This week, Julia, Lee, and James are talking about Lee’s new book, Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America. They are examining a counter-intuitive proposal to counteract the menacing effects of partisanship - more partisanship. Why are parties important? What is their role in our political system? And how many does America really need? These are some of the questions they tackle in this episode.

This episode is also available on Apple, Spotify, and Stitcher.

Show Notes

Lee cites Federalist 10 as a reminder that James Madison was a proponent of multiparty democracy.

Julia talks about the UCLA School of political parties and references Seth Masket’s terrific book, The Inevitable Party: Why Attempts to Kill the Party System Fail and How They Weaken Democracy.

James recommends John Aldrich’s book, Why Parties? A Second Look for help making sense of what political parties are, who composes them, and the activities in which they engage.