Two-party systems require the parties to share substantially the same principles

Evidence

88 Arthur N. Holcombe (Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, loc. cit.) rightly stressed that in the double party system the principles of the two parties “have tended to be the same. If they had not been substantially the same, submission to the victor would have been intolerable to the vanquished.” — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2466

Categorization

• XREF: Explains why the two-party system can absorb defeat — the loser submits because the victor’s principles are essentially its own. Contrast with totalitarianism, where no submission is tolerable. — connects to: Strategic equivocation on divisive issues can hold an electoral coalition together. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 212