On: Swiss Political System: More Than You Ever Wanted ...

[wolco]

First past the post doesn't explain Canada's four main parties. There is something preventing additional parties in America

[CountSessine → wolco]

Yes - it’s the fact that the race for the presidency is a winner-takes-all game. When Clinton lost, she didn’t get a diminished, minority, but still proportional say in the running of the government - she was completely out and Trump got everything.

The US system wasn’t engineered with the possibility of coalitions and compromise governments in mind (at least not in the Executive).

[kgwgk → CountSessine]

There are other countries, like France, where presidential elections have (obviously) a single winner which have nevertheless multiple parties.

If the US president was elected by the Congress would that end bipartidism? I don’t know.

[md_ → kgwgk]

French Presidential elections use run-off voting; they don't use first-past-the-post.

[kgwgk → md_]

True, but the comment I replied to was not about that.

[flingo → CountSessine]

I thought the original setup where the vice president was whoever got the second most votes was going for that.

[md_ → wolco]

Every Canadian government but for one has been from one of the two main parties.

[wolco → md_]

The other parties popular support determines which of those two parties wins.

When you have more than two you could end up in a minority government where a smaller parties decide issues by supporting a big party.

Provinces have had other parties become the government.