Duverger example: USA, 19th century

The United States has not always had a two-party political system. It started during the 1836 presidential elections.

At the beginning...

The first U.S. presidential election in 1789 was very different from the way Americans do presidential elections today. In 1789 there were no official candidates. There was no campaigning for the office. There were no political parties, no nominating conventions, nor primary elections. The entire election season was very short. The Electoral College was taken seriously rather than being treated as an antiquated formality.

Also, there were no declared candidates. The generation of the Founding Fathers felt that running for office was uncouth and that acting like you wanted the office was inappropriate. It was thought that the Electors would simply come together and vote for who they thought was the best man for the job. Nobody would put their name forward and say, "I want to be president!"

In the early 1790s, political parties were not political parties in the modern sense. They were really just informal factions or schools of thought. Politicians may have been described as "Republicans" or a "Federalists", not because they formally joined that party. They simply were part of a community of like-minded people.

During the 1792 presidential elections, George Washington did not really want to be elected for a second term, but he was finally compelled to stay. There were however some concerns about who would become his vice president. Thus, on October 16 1792, some prominent political figures from various states met in Philadelphia to discuss their choice for candidate for the vice presidency. That meeting was symbolic as it can be said it was the first caucus in American history.

1836 Presidential Election

In contrast to the first few presidential elections, by 1836 a few organized factions and political parties had started to take shape. Until then, people who had been elected into the Electoral College would meet and debate among themselves, and then cast their votes for various political figures, with many "candidates" from the same party receiving votes from Electors.

However, the 1836 election would change things forever. One political party, the Democratic Party, decided to conduct a form or primary, and put forward a single candidate, representing the whole Democratic faction. Meanwhile, their opponents, the Whig Party, a disorganized new faction, allowed their votes to be scattered amongst several of their representatives, with Whig electors often supporting a different candidate according to states. The result was a clear victory for the Democrats:

1840 Presidential Election

The take away lesson from the 1836 election was clear. Although it was not formulated as such back then, the use of plurality voting in a single seat election (the presidency), meant that there could only be two viable candidates. The Whigs wanted their revenge from the previous presidential election, and this time, they had time to organise a national convention, which took place in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in December 1839. The party united all of their forces behind one single candidate: William Henry Harrison.

The result speaks for itself:

Henceforth, all presidential elections in the US were mostly a choice between two opposing forces, two main parties.

After the American Civil War, the political divide settled around the two party that will still know today: the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.