Answer:two-party system, political system in which the electorate gives its votes largely to only two major parties and in which one or the other party can win a majority in the legislature. The United States is the classic example of a nation with a two-party system. The contrasts between two-party and multiparty systems are often exaggerated. Within each major party in the United States, the Republicans and the Democrats, many factions are struggling for power. The presence of divergent interests under a single party canopy masks a process of struggle and compromise that under a multiparty system is out in the open.
Major influences favourable to the two-party system are the use of single-member districts for the election of representatives, the presidential system, and the absence of proportional representation. In Great Britain and the United States members of the national representative assemblies are chosen from single-member districts, and the candidate polling the largest number of votes is the winner. Such an electoral system compels a party to strive for a majority of the votes in a district or other electoral area. Usually only two fairly evenly matched parties may successfully compete for office in a single-member district, and a third party suffers recurring defeat unless it can swallow up one of the other parties. Parties do not thrive under the certainty of defeat. A third party may have a substantial popular following and yet capture few seats in the representative body. With, for instance, 20 percent of the popular vote spread evenly over an entire country, such a party would not win a single seat. (Under full proportional representation, it would be entitled to 20 percent of the seats in a legislative body.) The rise of the Labour Party in Great Britain, for example, virtually deprived the Liberal Party of parliamentary seats even when it had a substantial popular following.
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