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The Duverger Syndrome is democracies' most critical illness. Both the causes and the fixes are known. Solutions must be applied as a matter of priority.
Most, if not all, of the symptoms of the Duverger Syndrome will be familiar to anybody reading these pages. What we need to realise is that these symptoms are intimately linked to known root causes. The proposed solutions will not fix everything, but they will help in making a noticeable difference.
Read on, as we continue researching and developing this section of the website, about the symptoms, the causes as well as some historical examples in different countries of the Duverger Syndrome.
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Democratic countries throughout the world all have electorates of millions of voters who seem to neatly fall into two broad camps. Is that natural? Is that healthy?
Negative campaigning and dirty politics. It does not have to be this way!
Why our electoral choice always seems to be limited to two less-than-ideal candidates...
Our electoral system, far from helping us finding consensual candidates with broad appeal, seem to favour divisive politicians coming from the extremes.
Regular upheavals in political and social conditions cause major changes in the two-party system.
The United States has not always had a two-party political system. It started during the 1836 presidential elections.
American politics in the 21st century, and the rise of Trumpism, the MAGA movement, and post-truth politics offer a frightening example of all the symptoms of the Duverger Syndrome combined, pushing American democracy agonizingly close to its breaking point.
The 2000 and 2004 presidential elections in the Republic of China, Taiwan are the best historical illustration of Duverger's Law, and mimic quite closely what occurred almost two centuries earlier in the United States during their 1836 and 1840 elections.