Some Thoughts on America's Multi-Party System

From time to time political commentators and political novices (all mostly of the left variety) lament that if only America had a multi-party system like Europe does then we would all be ok. I think that's hogwash. America does have a multi-party system (I would argue at least 8), what is missing is the election day free for all and post election horse trading of European Politics. Which from political theater stand point is awesome and as a political junkie I would love to experience it. From a practical standpoint, not so much.

Instead of the chaos America gets that out of the way in the primary stage, narrowing the many factions down to two major choices with the malcontents of the two parties (usually the far ends and the center) occasionally posting third party candidates. Both styles result in the same thing the majority of the time, a right of center or left of center government (there are of course notable exceptions but you will be hard pressed to find many of them).

The key difference between the two forms is that one is good at hiding differences as well as co-opting them in the name of coalition stability (America), whereas the other (Europe) is good at highlighting these differences in order to promote individual factions and their respective hot button issues. Regardless each system has more or less the following 8 divisions:

Far-Left
Left
Center-Left
Center
Center-Right
Right
Far-Right
Politically Agnostic

In Europe they are given party names, in America they run in the Republican or the Democratic primaries. In America in a way it's like Communist party politics; all the factions fighting it out behind closed doors but in the end they all belong to the same party which has the power. The American system preserves stability for a set period of time while many European systems, because of their fractious parties, reflect more of the mood of the people and can be more volatile  (snap elections, government's falling after a crisis, etc).

Of course I am not advocating one or the other. I myself would prefer an open primary with a top two candidate runoff as my election model of choice. I think that would be fairer to states that tilt one way or the other of center (think Texas or Massachusetts). What I mean to say with this post is that most Americans don't choose to exercise their right to influence the coalitions that are the Democratic and Republican parties for whatever reason. Yet, in my opinion, even if they did the end result would more than likely be a centerish government such as American democracy, and democracy as a whole, has always put forth.