Ten Theses Toward a Critique of the Democratic-Republican Two-Party State and the Duopoly System of Government

The Democratic-Republican two-party system is undemocratic, anti-republican, and tends toward one-party rule.
1) No party system whatsoever is mandated by the Constitution of the United States.

2) To maintain that political representation in the United States cannot function otherwise than by means of the reigning two-party system is to imply that the Constitution of the United States does not in fact constitute a functional representative government.

3) It is commonly asserted that, in the two-party system, the Democratic and Republican Parties each act as a check and balance against the other. Such statements are not only false, they are dangerous fabrications, confusing an extra-constitutional political convention with the constitutional construction of the United States of America.

4) Plurality voting may tend to produce a two-party system of political contests in a given polity, but the Democratic-Republican two-party system of political representation has degenerated into a one-party state in polities across the United States.

5) The monopolization and centralization of political power by the Democratic and Republican Parties represents a threat to constitutional republican government. The Democratic and Republican Parties are nothing more than the political organs of narrow factional interests.

6) The politics of the Democratic-Republican two-party state are primarily reactionary in character. Support for the one is predicated, first and foremost, on rejection of the other.

7) The reproduction of the two-party state is justified by means of nothing more than a set of ideological mystifications: lesser-evilism, historical determinism, the virtue of political impatience, etc.

8) Presented with the false choice between a Republican and a Democrat in the majority of elections – when they are provided with a choice at all –, the majority of voters reject both, opting not to vote rather than vote Republican or Democrat. The Democratic-Republican duopoly system of government is a crisis of democracy.

9) The US electorate is composed of a highly diverse body of individuals and groups comprising a multi-polar social order. The bi-polar order of the two-party state is structurally incapable of adequately representing this multiplicity of interests.

10) Political independence is the condition of political freedom. Insofar the the people of the United States remain dependent upon the Democratic and Republican Parties for their political representation, the people of the United States are not free; rather, we are subject to a "frightful despotism."
The Democratic-Republican two-party system is undemocratic, anti-republican, and tends toward one-party rule.

2 comments:

Samuel Wilson said...

Nice work, d. Thesis #2 is especially strong. Should there be an Eleventh Thesis about how election ballots embed partisanship as an organizing principle where it doesn't really belong? Think about it.

d.eris said...

That's a good one, Sam. I didn't even broach ballot access issues here. If anyone else out there has some more potential theses, feel free to jump in.

 
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