Abstract
From the very beginning of the Republic two large, almost equally strong parties have dominated public life in the United States. Their names have changed. Until the beginning of the 1820s they were called Federalists and Republicans (or Democratic Republicans); then came the National Republicans (later the Whigs) and Democrats. Since 1856 they have been Republicans and Democrats. In a later passage I shall discuss what they entail, and there I shall also try to answer why there have always been only two significant parties in the United States. Here I want only to investigate the reasons for the monopolistic position of the two dominant parties and thus to account for the strong hold that they have.
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© 1976 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Sombart, W. (1976). The Monopoly of the Two Major Parties. In: Why is there no Socialism in the United States?. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-02524-4_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-02524-4_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-02526-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-02524-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)