Contest: Research Election History and Third Parties

What do the Communist Party, Constitution Party, Green Party, and Libertarian Party all have in common? They’re all third parties in the U.S., who represent differing origins, viewpoints, and intentions than the Democratic Party and Republican Party.

Since the formation of the organized political parties in the 1830s, the American political landscape has been dominated by the two-party system. Some other third parties in the U.S. are the Natural Law Party, Peace and Freedom Party, Progressive Labor Party, Prohibition Party, Reform Party, Ripon Society, Socialist Labor Party, and Socialist Party.

Show us your election research savvy: Did any of the above or other third parties hold a balance of power or win a significant portion of the ballots in Presidential elections in the past twenty years? Use CQ Electronic Library to find out and submit your answer to Yuan Zeng, librarian for Political Science, at The first responder with a correct answer wins a $5 Café Q gift card! (JHU students only, please.)

Update: The contest is now closed. Congratulations to our winner!

Leave a reply