THIRD PARTIES

Americans frequently refer to their two-party system, yet one-party politics long prevailed in southern states and third parties have repeatedly appeared. A national system of competitive major parties had only begun to emerge in the later 1820s when what are regarded as America's earliest third parties formed—the Anti-Masons and the Workingmen's parties of the Northeast. Third-party challenges have continued into contemporary times, with John Anderson's independent candidacy garnering 6 percent of the 1980 presidential vote.

Third parties have been as diverse as the nation itself. Organizationally, they have ranged from those most active at the state or local level, like the Greenbackers, to those created primarily to campaign for the presidency, like Robert La Follette's Progressives of 1924. Even when working from regional strongholds, the latter sort generally failed to contest state offices or build enduring local organizations. The life spans of third parties have also varied enormously. Certain minor parties pursued some enduring goal like socialism or temperance for decades. Others, like the Populists, responding to more specific sets of economic and political circumstances, survived a shorter time. And some, like the 1980 Anderson campaign, have been fleeting efforts, leaving neither an organization nor an articulated set of principles behind. But third parties have differed most in their purposes. Some of them, like the antislavery Liberty party or New York's Right to Life party, have focused on a single issue, and others have emphasized the concerns of a single constituency—La Raza Unida, for instance, has represented Chicanos. But still others have emerged because major parties were failing to serve a number of interest groups on a whole range of issues. The Progressives of 1912, for example, seceded from the gop when it became clear the party would embrace neither their concerns nor their candidate, Theodore Roosevelt.

These many parties have all been conspicuously unsuccessful in national campaigns. Free-Soil candidate Martin Van Buren won 10 percent of the 1848 popular vote. In 1856 and 1860, new parties scored better; but with the Whigs disintegrating and Democrats in disarray, it might be questioned whether the Republicans, Know-Nothings, and Constitutional Union party were truly third parties. Between 1864 and 1988, only five third-party candidates won electoral votes—James Weaver (Populist) in 1892, Theodore Roosevelt (Progressive) in 1912, Robert La Follette (Progressive) in 1924, Strom Thurmond ("Dixiecrat") in 1948, and George Wallace (American Independent) in 1968. Only six won more than 5 percent of the popular vote in those same years—Weaver, Roosevelt, La Follette, Wallace, Anderson, and Eugene Debs (Socialist, 1912). Of these, only Roosevelt outpolled a major party.

This dismal track record has been explained variously. Some cite factors, such as America's relative abundance or egalitarian ethos, that they say predispose citizens toward the classless, centrist politics the major parties typically embody. But third parties have more clearly been hindered by certain inertial qualities of the political system. Competing in a federal system, in which local, state, and national elections are held, requires resources and a thoroughgoing organization that new parties often lack. Third parties have been stymied, too, by the winner-take-all system. They do not win power or representation proportionate to the number of votes they receive, but only if they win a plurality of the votes cast in a district or state. Voters are thereby discouraged from supporting parties unable to outpoll all competitors. Third parties, frequently identified with specific regions or interests, have also stumbled in the coalition building required for victory in a large and diverse nation. For instance, southern and midwestern Populists, known as spokespersons for agrarian interests, found it difficult to attract labor votes. Coalition building itself carries risks. Third parties risk irrelevance if they fail, but loss of identity if they succeed too well—as happened in 1896 when Populists fused with Democrats on the basis of free silver. Third parties have faced state laws that have made it difficult for them to get on the ballot and have also encountered outright repression. Intimidation, fraud, and harassment weakened southern Populists and, during World War I, the Socialist party.

Third parties, however, have not been as ineffectual as their record in presidential campaigns might indicate. They have been able to reach voters and build coalitions in certain state and local elections. Even the Socialist party, which never topped 6 percent in a presidential vote, repeatedly elected mayors in several cities including Milwaukee and Bridgeport, Connecticut. And, from the 1850s through the 1940s, Congress typically included at least a scattering of third-party representatives—Free-Soil in the early 1850s, Greenback in the 1870s, Populist in the 1890s, Socialist in the 1910s, Farmer-Labor in the 1920s and 1930s, and American Labor party in the 1930s and 1940s. Third parties have usually done best where one of the major parties was historically weak—owing, for instance, to lingering Civil War era loyalties—or where neither party was addressing the concerns of some locally significant constituency. In parts of the post-Reconstruction South, Greenbackers and Populists could outpoll Republicans and, especially when they pooled efforts with Republicans, even outpoll Democrats. In midwestern and western states, where Democrats often lacked strength, agrarian and progressive third parties sometimes triumphed. Kansas, Colorado, and North Dakota elected Populist governors in the 1890s. During World War I, the Nonpartisan League conquered North Dakota by entering its own candidates in Republican primaries. In the following decades, Minnesota's Farmer-Labor party and Wisconsin's Progressive party elected both governors and senators.

Third parties' contributions to American politics have come not only when they won power. Many of them hardly expected victory but simply wished to agitate and educate. And in this, perhaps, third parties have had their greatest successes. They have often served as early advocates of causes later embraced by the nation—from emancipation or prohibition to government-sponsored loans for farmers. Although no direct link necessarily exists between a third party's espousal of a principle and its eventual enactment into law, it is certainly the case that abolitionist, Free-Soil, and Populist politicians focused contemporary public debate on issues of concern to them. Third parties, either as secessionist spin-offs or wholly new organizations, have also contributed to the formation or realignment of major parties. They organized constituencies that became the nuclei of new parties or that existing parties moved to incorporate. The forces rallied by the antislavery parties became a central element in the Republican party. The white southerners whose habit of voting Democratic was broken by the 1948 Dixiecrat and 1968 Wallace campaigns became prey for Republican coalition builders. Finally, third parties have played the role of potential spoiler. This can be exaggerated since third parties may mobilize those who otherwise would not vote as well as take votes away from other parties. Third parties' efforts to gain the balance of power in presidential elections by denying either party an electoral majority have always failed. But third parties probably have altered the outcome of certain elections. In 1844, for instance, the Liberty party siphoned off enough votes from the Whig Henry Clay to throw New York and the nation to a southern Democrat, James Polk.

Steven Rosenstone, Roy Behr, and Edward Lazarus, Third Parties in America: Citizen Response to Major Party Failure (1984); Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., and Fred Israel, eds., History of American Presidential Elections, 1789-1968, 4 vols. (1971).

Patrick G. Williams

See also American Independent Party; Anti-Masons; Communist Party; Constitutional Union Party; Dixiecrat Party; Free-Soil Party; Greenback Party; Know-Nothing Party; Liberty Party; National Woman's Party; People's Party; Populism; Progressive Parties: 1912, 1924, 1948; Socialist Party.