Two-party elections rarely yield a mandate for any single policy.

Evidence

This is the significance of a two-party system. It enables two complete plans for the formation of a governing majority to be laid before the voters for judgment at the ballot box. To be sure, the voter in this situation can only vote for one plan or the other. This is the reason why a vote in a two-party election can so seldom be interpreted as a mandate to follow any one specific policy. If the voter had had more choices, very likely he could have found a program more nearly to his liking. But government always involves concessions to other points of view. In return for the concessions implicit in a two-party system, the voter gains a chance to take part in the most significant of all governmental decisions. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 3790

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Election votes select candidates rather than deciding specific measures. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 3768