Republican & Democratic America

The United States is currently divided almost exactly in half between supporters of the Democratic and Republican parties
• The Republican-Democratic division in the country follows clear geographical patterns • The Democratic Party generally controls the large northern cities (the North-East), the industrial region around the Great Lakes and the West Coast
• The Republican Party generally controls the South-East, Texas and the mostly rural central part of the country

American Politics
• For most of its history American politics has been based on a twoparty system • Occasionally, “third party” candidates emerge in major elections (this generally represents a split within one of the major parties)
• ‘Minor’ parties (Green, Communist, Libertarian, etc.) exist in the U.S. but win a much smaller proportion of the vote than they do in Europe • Only one round of elections. The candidate with majority after this round wins, even if there is no absolute majority.

The ‘Electoral College’
• In Presidential Elections voters do not directly elect a candidate. • Instead they vote for a member of the Electoral College (“un grand electeur”)
• Each state has a number of electors which is equal to its total Congressional representation (so California has by far the most electors, followed by Texas and New York)
• The candidate who wins the popular vote in a state receives all the electoral votes of that state • The vote of the electors is then a formality as they simply support the winner of the popular vote in their state
• This system can lead to seemingly unfair results where one candidate wins the national popular vote, but loses to his opponent

in the electoral college (example of 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore): Candidate Party Popular Vote % Electoral Vote George Bush Republican 50,460,110 47,9 271 Al Gore Democrat 51,003,926 48,4 266 Ralph Nader Green 2,883,105 2,7 0 Pat Buchanan Reform