Stifling political competition : how government has rigged the system to benefit demopublicans exclude third parties / James T.Bennett.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Introduction -- 2. The American Suspicion of Parties -- 3. No Competition Allowed or He Who Controls the Ballot Controls the Election -- 4. Then Along Came FECA -- 5. FECA: The Demopublicans' Best Friend -- 6. The State Feeds the Party and the Party Feeds the State -- 7. Conclusion: Pulling the Plug?

"Stifling Political Competition examines the history and array of laws, regulations, subsidies and programs that benefit the two major parties and discourage even the possibility of a serious challenge to the Democrat-Republican duopoly. The analysis synthesizes political science, economics and American history to demonstrate how the two-party system is the artificial creation of a network of laws, restrictions and subsidies that favor the Democrats and Republicans and cripple potential challenges. The American Founders, as it has been generally forgotten, distrusted political parties. Nowhere in the U.S. Constitution are parties mentioned, much less given legal protection or privilege. This provocative book traces how by the end of the Civil War the Republicans and Democrats had guaranteed their dominance and subsequently influenced a range of policies developed to protect the duopoly."--BOOK JACKET.