Why America and the world need a Multiparty System?

India Insight with Sunny Sharma

Season 8 Episode 3

The true spirit of industry and capitalism is emblematic of choice and to reflect that idea means there must be a multiparty system in America and the world.
The growth of special interests means there must be a counteracting force to serve the interests and grievances of everyday workers and taxpayers. This is the genesis of the need for new parties to come on the seen to serve the many different needs, perspectives, and ideologies of a diverse community of people. There must be a movement of organized labor to petition for not just for better standards of living and economic opportunity but also to secure our fundamental rights and liberties in every generation. Students of Indian, American, and other national histories know this too well.
The problem in America, is that the average citizen not only does not know the essential importance of new parties throughout US history, but they have also been conditioned to believe and rely upon a lie; the two party system is the only means to achieving their fundamental needs and wants. Third parties have served essential functions in garnering support for new policy agendas and perpetuating them to the forefront of federal and local discourse. Like many social movements, they have shifted the moral narrative to include more and more people to get involved in the political process.
Madison understood that party spirit would be inevitable, but he wasn't a fortune teller. Nonetheless, he was one of the only founders to be involved with both major parties during his day, the Federalists and the Democrat-Republican Party. He saw the necessity of parties to offer diffing points of views and emphasis on particular goals in what President Barack Obama calls the "arena of ideas" so as Madison understood the most popular ideas would come to the forefront.
Many questions still remain. Did Madison believe such types of popular democracy were more effective than age old ideas of the primacy of aristocracy and oligarchies? Many people would say no; the founding fathers did not believe in such types of democracy, rather those most knowledgable and entrusted with the reigns of power should steer the course of a nation.
That is for our generation to figure out: Does democracy function better when more people are involved or should those more "capable" decide how political decisions are made? I for one believe a multiparty system both gets more people involved while simultaneously, in President Obama's words, encourages more capable individuals to enter the political arena and discourse as too socially and culturally reform society for the better.