Democracy Forum

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine We’ll talk about the history and the future of the two major parties, How parties change and evolve, how/why they splinter. Are the parties too strong or too weak? Are the two major parties in this moment so polarized that the system itself is undermined? Has the modern two-party system made us ungovernable? What reforms and options might be realistic? — multi-member districts, proportional representation, ranked choice voting? Guest: Lee Drutman, senior fellow at New America. He is the author of Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America Sandy Maisel, Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of American Government at Colby College (emeritus) To learn more about this topic: “Quiz: If America Had Six Parties, Which Would You Belong To?” by Lee Drutman in the New York Times, September 8, 2021 “Have Democrats become a party of the left?” William A. Galston and Elaine Kamarck, for Brookings, July, 2021 “Th