We have a strong built in bias in our system, to having two major parties. The requirement that a winning candidate for the presidency get a majority of electoral votes gives us that bias. If no candidate gets a majority of the electoral votes, then the House of Representatives picks a winner from among the top three candidates.
We have many political parties, if you think about it. There are Libertarian, Peace and Freedom Party, Constitution Party, Green Party, and others. But they never get enough support to gain electoral votes, or even elect members of Congress. There too, there is a bias towards having two parties, in that, legislation passes by majority vote of the quorum of each house of Congress.
Throughout American history, we have always had two major parties, though they haven’t always been today’s Republican and Democrat parties.
The Republican party arose at the same time that the Whig party dissolved.
In a constitutional republic such as ours, political parties should reflect the views of the people in that party, who in turn elect representatives to positions of power.
Even if we didn’t have political parties at all, there would still be factions arising which pushed liberal points of view, or push various causes, and such factions would try to gain a majority to pass particular legislation favorable to that cause.
Absolutely...Madison saw it coming and was very concerned about this aspect. He addressed the matter very well in Federalist #10. The multi-party/faction situation has been a powerful force in our elections. Georgia is instructive, with 99% of the vote reported:
Joe Biden (D) 2,465,500 49.5%
Donald Trump (R) 2,455,305 49.3%
Jo Jorgensen (LB) 61,888 1.2%
It's not the requirement of a majority in the Electoral College, it's the states' requirement of winner-take-all that does it.
If all the states were like Maine and Nebraska with congressional district apportionment of their electoral votes, we'd see more regional parties getting Electoral College votes. This would result in more cases of the House of Representatives choosing, because it reduces the number of EV that the leader will get. Siphon off enough Electoral Votes, and the 270 threshold becomes harder to meet.
-PJ