Nick Brumfield: Can someone explain why third parties seem so much more viable in the UK than US despite both using first-past-the-post single member districts? Is it like a historical difference or is there something structural?

Can someone explain why third parties seem so much more viable in the UK than US despite both using first-past-the-post single member districts? Is it like a historical difference or is there something structural?

No party would form a coalition since it can't get you the presidency. Any party in a coalition would be seen as selling out their party base for the gain of nothing

What other ppl have said, but also in the UK it's a centralized and costs like a £500 deposit to register and get ballot access- in the US you have to get ballot access in every individual state, and the processes are incredibly expensive, complicated and intentionally onerous

Would also love to know.

A couple things. Most of the other parties are regionally based such as SNP, Plaid Cymru, and the N Ireland parties. Other than the Lib Dems no other party has stuck around that isn’t regionally based. So while there are a few Green Party MP s I would compare them to the occasional independents in

compare them to independents who occasionally win. Lib Dems is more interesting in that it consistently has seats and I think it’s because they occasionally serve in government so there is an argument they can be part of the government so essentially a Parliament changes the calculus slightly.

Mostly I’d say it is the regional parties and the ability to enter into coalition government makes the smaller parties more relevant

Thanks!

And coalition process means things happen after UK election which happen during US primaries. The Democratic party is a coalition stretching across a number of UK parties and in a place like NYC, the Dem primary is all that matters. In some UK constituencies Labour vs Lib Dem is all that matters.

UK seats are much smaller; money not quite so determining a factor in campaigns; redistricting is national and independent, much less gerrymandering; no voter registration by party, no primaries. But rise of 4th, 5th parties (Greens, Reform) is fairly new, much more volatility now than 20 years ago.

In the US they have computer programs that know exactly how every household will vote and they redraw the districts to guarantee a specific outcome; selecting the houses they want to include. It’s rigged.

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