The two-party combat and leadership centralization in Congress are at odds with the considerable pluralism and diversity in American society. If we replaced our winner-take-all electoral system with a system of proportional representation in the U.S. House, more than two parties could hold a significant number of seats and better represent the nation\u2019s diversity. But while proportional representation has long been heralded as an electoral reform, the reform community has had much less to say about how having multiple parties would affect governance.<\/p>
We expect that proportional representation would create a multiparty presidential system where various parties would be organized under two broad pre-electoral coalitions and could engage in more fluid legislative dealmaking than in the current system. To facilitate more complex bargaining, we recommend reforms that empower committees and latent majorities relative to the speaker. We also recommend changes to ensure that inter-party disputes within the majority coalition cannot easily lead to breakdowns and chaos.<\/p>
Our paper is an early step in imagining how multipartyism governance could work in the United States. We encourage future research into how multipartyism would interact with the President, the Senate, and other political institutions.<\/p>","":null,"drop_cap":false,"anchor_id":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_heading","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_heading":{"text":"Acknowledgments","level":"h3","":null,"anchor_id":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"add_background_color":false,"content":"
For helpful feedback on an earlier draft of this paper, we thank everyone who attended our March 2024 workshops at Princeton University and New America and commented on the paper, including Roel Bos, Danny Daneri, Soren Dayton, Alina Dunlap, Matt Glassman, Matthew Green, Will Horne, Frances Lee, Cerin Lindgrensavage, Nolan McCarty, Oscar Pocasangre, Connor Phillips, Mark Schmitt, Anthony Taboni, Michael Thorning, Philip Wallach, and Hye Young You. We also benefited from conversations at a May 2024 workshop on multiparty governance hosted by Protect Democracy and the American Enterprise Institute. Additionally, we thank New America\u2019s Political Reform team, especially Sarah Jacob, Oscar Pocasangre, Mark Schmitt, and Maresa Strano, for their support and feedback throughout. Finally, we are grateful to Princeton University\u2019s Graduate School and the GradFUTURES Social Impact Fellowship for funding the work on this project.<\/p>
Editorial disclosure: The views expressed in this report are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the views of New America, its staff, fellows, funders, or board of directors.<\/i><\/p>","":null,"drop_cap":false,"anchor_id":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_boxed_links","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_boxed_links":{"heading":"Downloads","links":[{"title":"","description":"","link":{"title":"Governing the House with Multiple Parties","url":"https:\/\/d1y8sb8igg2f8e.cloudfront.net\/documents\/Governing_the_House_with_Multiple_Parties_2024-08-05_150113_1ap0nRc.pdf","target":"_blank"}}],"":null,"anchor_id":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_add_component","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_authors","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_authors":{"":null,"anchor_id":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_taxonomies","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_taxonomies":{"":null,"anchor_id":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_related","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_related":{"":null,"anchor_id":""}}]},"yoast_head":"\n