Explain It to Me

Democracy in crisis: The two-party problem

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Vox Senior Correspondent Zack Beauchamp talks with political scientist Lee Drutman, author of Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop. They discuss the history of the two-party system in American politics, and examine a number of possible structural reforms that could work to get the U.S. out of the morass it's in, looking to several other countries' democracies for inspiration.

Host: Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp), Senior Correspondent, Vox

Guest: Lee Drutman (@leedrutman), senior fellow, New America

References: 

  • "How does this end?" by Zack Beauchamp (Vox; Jan. 3)
  • Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America (Oxford; 2020)
  • "Democracy in America? Partisanship, Polarization, and the Robustness of Support for Democracy in the United States" by Matthew H. Graham and Milan W. Svolik (American Political Science Review, 114 (2); May 2020)
  • "One way to reform the House of Representatives? Expand it" by Lee Drutman and Yuval Levin (Washington Post; Dec. 9, 2021)

     

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    This episode was made by: 

    • Producer: Erikk Geannikis
    • Editor: Amy Drozdowska
    • Engineer: Paul Robert Mounsey
    • Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: Amber Hall

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