Bipartisan rules neutered third-party challengers after Populism’s defeat

Evidence

After Populism was defeated, however—in the South by stuffed ballot boxes and bayonets, in the North by simple electoral dominance—bipartisan elites constructed a system which essentially neutered any third-party challenger. American parties nonetheless had a variety of bases and roots within society. These organizations effectively made them “mass parties” by proxy, tied to a plethora of labor, union, and civil organizations which defended popular interests to apparatchiks. Both on the left and the right, workers, employers, and small businesspeople defended their interests in local clubs, committees, and parties. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 140

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the structural argument about how American democracy foreclosed outsider parties — echoes the institutional taming described in other readings on US party systems. — connects to: Democratic co-optation destroyed the original Populist party — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 63; Ruling elites crushed biracial Populism with violence and racial propaganda — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 906

Broader Connections

• Democratic co-optation destroyed the original Populist party #expands (0.85) — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 63
• Ruling elites crushed biracial Populism with violence and racial propaganda #contradicts (0.75) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 906