The Professor
			4.9.05
	The Two-Party System: Where are the Metal-heads? Sometimes, when I’m talking to one of my more culturally-informed friends, the topic of politics comes up. It happens fairly often, as a matter of fact. And sometimes, in the course of one of these conversations, the subject shifts to one of the defining political differences between the US and most European countries: party systems. The US operates under a so-called two-party system, where the Republicans and Democrats compete with each other for power by building constituencies that, they hope, will combine to form more than fifty percent of the electorate. Most European countries work under a multi-party arrangement, where three or more parties vie for influence either by securing a majority or by joining together to form temporary coalitions. Both systems have their own traits, with their attendant advantages and drawbacks. One of the characteristics of the two-party system is that it breeds stability: One party will always have a secure majority over the other with no danger of a third party playing the role of the renegade spoiler, which often leads to severe legislative gear-grinding where matters of grave concern are involved. From a systemic point of view, this is an advantage of the US system. Distributions of power are transparent and permanent (at least within an election cycle). Good governmental performance is easy to reward, while bad behavior is easy to punish. And parties are under constant pressure to reformulate their positions in order to secure wider constituencies – or to block nefarious influences from attaining power. These systemic advantages notwithstanding, there is one major drawback to the two-party system that multi-party arrangements often avoid: entry barriers. This is a political problem. It is virtually impossible for a burgeoning interest group, let alone a third party that would represent this group’s interests, to gain influence in the legislative process without a long-term effort that often demands considerable amounts of financial capital and significant degrees of ideological compromise. Some do not see entry barriers as a problem, especially to the extent that they help reinforce the stability of the system. In cases where arguments favoring barriers for stability’s sake are used to conceal a political antipathy for the group or party seeking entry, however, the two-party system begins to look less like a model of political permanence than an insider’s scheme for jealous politicians. And that goes to the public’s trust in its government’s integrity. As an example of a group whose full entry into the legislative process has been barricaded, lots of people will cite the environmental movement, which continues to vie for influence in the Democratic Party as it disavows any potential association with the Republicans. Others might mention the difficulties faced by the Reform Party, or the Natural Law Party, or the Constitution Party, or the Libertarian Party (but they probably won’t, since almost nobody even knows that these parties exist). But while these groups noisily thrash in the turbulent waters of American politics, there are other groups that have been left on the banks of the political mainstream (or that have simply opted to sit there with their arms crossed) with no one to take up their cause. They have been dragged into the water before, but before they were taught to swim. They think that politics is a stream of dull events and duller people, since they have never learned how much is involved in navigating the roiling (and fascinating) currents underneath. So now they just sit on the shore, looking at the course of events with fear, ignorance, and disdain. One of these groups, of course, is the metal-heads: that long-haired band of misfits that made its Rock Mecca along the Sunset Strip, where the music sneered until late at night (or early in the morning, depending on your point of view) and the parties never stopped, apparently. What keeps these individuals out of politics? Why do they sound like such dunderheads when they get into it? And what can they do to improve their status beyond the rock scene? Next time: Metal’s Fit in the Political Spectrum
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