A system of permanent one-party dominance within a formally democratic state is more likely than an actual coup from the left or right. Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party held power for 71 years in a formal multi-party democracy, and Sweden’s Social Democrats held power for 44 years.

By Chris Vance

Niskanen Center

America is not just in the middle of a national election during a worldwide pandemic; we are in the midst of a political realignment. We are transitioning to a new party system, the seventh in our nation’s history. Joe Biden’s Democratic presidential nomination victory gives us a sense of how that system could look.

I spent 37 years on the political battlefield, both as an elected official and as a Republican state party chairman. For the past several years I have taught graduate-level public affairs classes at the University of Washington and Seattle University. Of all the things happening now in our politics, what is most interesting to me is that we are watching the creation of a new American party system in real-time.

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