{"id":35817,"date":"2023-07-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/insights\/more-parties-better-parties\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T13:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:57:09","slug":"more-parties-better-parties","status":"publish","type":"insight","link":"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/insights\/more-parties-better-parties\/","title":{"rendered":"More Parties, Better Parties"},"author":9,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","issue_tax":[540],"topic_tax":[84,105,119,140,164,200,226],"program_tax":[156],"project_tax":[4116,139],"person_tax":[2840],"podcast_show_tax":[],"insight_type":[3795,3796],"fellowship_tax":[],"award":[],"class_list":["post-35817","insight","type-insight","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","insight_type-in-depth","insight_type-report"],"acf":{"details":{"hero_type":"large-image","abstract":"Political parties are the central institutions of modern representative democracy, and they must also be at the center of reform efforts.","subheading":"The Case for Pro-Parties Democracy Reform","read_time":"","watch_time":"","podcast_player":"","apple_podcast_link":"","spotify_podcast_link":"","podcast_link":null,"listen_time":"","youtube_id":"","":null,"featured_image":35826,"add_image_caption":false,"caption":"","pdf_version":null,"helper_taxonomies":{"issue_tax":[540],"topic_tax":[84,105,119,140,164,200,226],"program_tax":[156],"project_tax":[139,4116],"person_tax":[2840],"fellowship_tax":false,"event_type":false,"location":false,"insight_type":[3795,3796],"award":false,"podcast_show_tax":false,"person_type":false,"demographic_key":false,"survey_topic":false,"organization":false},"media_inquiry":false,"media_inquiry_title":"","media_inquiry_email":""},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_heading","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_heading":{"text":"Abstract","level":"h3","":null,"anchor_id":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"add_background_color":false,"content":"<p data-block-key=\"7b58y\">Political parties are the central institutions of modern representative democracy. They must also be at the center of efforts to reform American democracy. To redirect and realign the downward trajectory of our politics, we must focus on political parties. We need them to do better. And in order to create better parties, we need more parties.<\/p><p data-block-key=\"4buld\">This paper makes the case for pro-parties reform both generally, and then for two specific reforms that would center parties: fusion voting and proportional representation. Fusion voting allows for multiple parties to endorse the same candidate, encouraging new party formation. Proportional representation ends the single-member district, making it possible for multiple parties to win seats in larger, multi-member districts, in proportion to their popular support. The goal of these reforms\u2014fusion in the short and medium term and proportional representation in the long term\u2014is to move us toward a more representative, effective, and resilient democracy for the twenty-first century.<\/p><hr\/><h2 data-block-key=\"43ioo\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/political-reform\/audiobook-more-parties-better-parties\/\">Audiobook: More Parties, Better Parties<\/a><\/h2><p data-block-key=\"9u2n1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/political-reform\/audiobook-more-parties-better-parties\/\">Listen to <i>More Parties, Better Parties<\/i>\u2014narrated by author Lee Drutman<\/a>.<\/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":"<p data-block-key=\"1ffuh\">This report has benefited from very helpful comments from Daniel Cantor, Sean Soendker Nicholson, David Palmer, Sasha Post, Oscar Pocasangre, Joel Rogers, Mark Schmitt, Micah Sifry, Daniel Stid, Maresa Strano, Cerin Lindgrensavage, Jennifer Dresden, Beau Tremitiere, Grant Tudor, and Farbod Faraji. Thanks also to Maresa Strano, Lizbeth Lucero, Joe Wilkes, Jodi Narde, and Naomi Morduch Toubman for their editing and communications support.<\/p><p data-block-key=\"d2o48\">Finally, I would like to thank Additional Ventures for its generous support of the Political Reform program\u2019s research on multiparty democracy.<\/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":"More Parties, Better Parties","url":"https:\/\/d1y8sb8igg2f8e.cloudfront.net\/documents\/More_Parties_Better_Parties_2023.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":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why America Needs More Political Parties: The Case for Pro-Parties Democracy Reform<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To fix American democracy, we need better political parties\u2014and more of them. This report examines how fusion voting and proportional representation can enable multi-party democracy and move beyond our current two-party system.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/insights\/more-parties-better-parties\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"More Parties, Better Parties\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To fix American democracy, we need better political parties\u2014and more of them. This report examines how fusion voting and proportional representation can enable multi-party democracy and move beyond our current two-party system.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/insights\/more-parties-better-parties\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"New America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NewAmerica\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-06T17:57:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d1y8sb8igg2f8e.cloudfront.net\/images\/shutterstock_242297617_720.2e16d0ba.fill-1600x775.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@NewAmerica\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/insights\/more-parties-better-parties\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/insights\/more-parties-better-parties\/\",\"name\":\"Why America Needs More Political Parties: The Case for Pro-Parties Democracy Reform\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/insights\/more-parties-better-parties\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/insights\/more-parties-better-parties\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d1y8sb8igg2f8e.cloudfront.net\/images\/shutterstock_242297617_720.2e16d0ba.fill-1600x775.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-07-03T04:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-06T17:57:09+00:00\",\"description\":\"To fix American democracy, we need better political parties\u2014and more of them. 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