American democracy is broken, but partisanship alone is not to blame. Political scientist Lee Drutman places our two-party system instead at the center of the American democratic crisis. Of course, partisan conflict plays a role, forcing voters to choose between a party that they might dislike and another that is far worse. But the two party system creates this corrosive dynamic. And the results of this system are dire: more partisan division, low political legitimacy, and high citizen disaffection.

This is how democracies crumble. The way to save democracy, Drutman argues, is to create more and better political parties through electoral reform and fusion voting.

We Need More Parties features responses to Drutman from Working Families Party national director Maurice Mitchell, political scientists Daniel Schlozman & Sam Rosenfeld, political theorist and former candidate for Massachusetts governor Danielle Allen, and others.

The issue also includes essays on American democracy and the question of political legitimacy: Project 2025 and abuses of executive power, the anointing of J. D. Vance and the liberal embrace of “reasonable conservatives”, the politics of grief in rural America, and more.

Full list of contributors: Lee Drutman leads a forum with Tabatha Abu El-Haj, Danielle Allen, Deepak Bhargava & Arianna Jiménez, Josh Lerner, Bob Master, Maurice Mitchell & Doran Schrantz, Joel Rogers, Daniel Schlozman & Sam Rosenfeld, Ian Shapiro, and Grant Tudor & Cerin Lindgrensavage—plus work by Elizabeth Catte, Kevin Donovan, James Goodwin, Honora Spicer, Sunaura Taylor & Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, and David Walsh.