Election 2016 should be the Year of the Third Parties, given the palpable dissatisfaction among voters, building over several years, with both the Democrats and the Republicans. Yet the duopoly dominates the field of political choice, as they do the political process. In this respect, this election cycle remarkably will be like previous elections—essentially a contest between two wings of the same flightless bird, with only token opposition from “third” parties.

What accounts for this? Dr. J. David Gillespie, author of Challengers to Duopoly: Why Third Parties Matter in American Two-Party Politics, explains.

A party delegate/superdelegate vote, not the popular vote, decided who the duopoly’s presidential nominees would be. Come November, the United States Electoral College, not voters directly, officially will decide on who the president and vice president of the United States will be.

Dr. David Brady, the Bowen H. and Janice Arthur McCoy professor of political science in the Stanford Graduate School of Business, discusses the Electoral College, its historic role in the political process, and whether it is an impediment to democracy.

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