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 history to 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. For example,
Bennett examines how the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (as
amended in 1974 and 1976), which was sold to the public as a nonpartisan
act of good government reformism actually reinforced the dominance of
the two parties. While focused primarily on the American experience, the
book does consider the prevalence of two-party systems around the world
(especially in emerging democracies) and the widespread contempt with
which they are often viewed. The concluding chapter considers the
potential of truly radical reform toward opening the field to vigorous,
lively, contentious third-party candidacies that might finally offer
alienated voters a choice, not an echo.
