Stifling political competition: how government has rigged the system to benefit demopublicans and exclude third parties

Stifling Political Competition examines the history and array of laws, regulations, subsidies and programs that benefit the two major parties and discourage even the possibility of a serious challenge to the Democrat-Republican duopoly. The analysis synthesizes political science, economics and American historyto demonstrate how the two-party system is the artificial creation of a network of laws, restrictions and subsidies that favor the Democrats and Republicans and cripple potential challenges. The American Founders, as it has been generally forgotten, distrusted political parties. Nowhere in the U.S. Constitution are parties mentioned, much less given legal protection or privilege. This provocative book traces how by the end of the Civil War the Republicans and Democrats had guaranteed their dominance and subsequently influenced a range of policies developed to protect the duopoly.

• ISBN: 978-0-387-09820-3
• Editorial: Springer
• Encuadernacion: Cartoné
• Páginas: 265
• Fecha Publicación: 01/12/2008
• Nº Volúmenes: 1
• Idioma: Inglés