1. Tables and Figures -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Constraints on Third Parties -- 3. Third Parties of the Nineteenth Century -- 4. Independents of the Twentieth Century -- 5. A Theory of Third Party Voting -- 6. Why Citizens Vote for Third Parties -- 7. Candidate Mobilization -- 8. Major Parties, Minor Parties, and American Elections -- 9. H. Ross Perot -- Appendix A: Minor Party Presidential Candidates, 1840-1992 -- Appendix B: Description and Coding of Variables.

Virtually all academic books on American third parties in the last half-century assume that they have largely disappeared. This book challenges that orthodoxy by explaining the (temporary) decline of third parties, demonstrating through the latest evidence that they are enjoying a resurgence, and arguing that they are likely to once again play a significant role in American politics. The book is based on a wealth of data, including district-level results from US House of Representatives elections, state-level election laws after the Civil War, and recent district-level election results from Australia, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom.

"A significant contribution to our understanding of minor parties and party system change. The authors develop a new theory and provide strong empirical evidence in support of it. They show that the Perot's candidacy has had a strong and lasting impact on partisan competition in elections. ---Paul Herrnson, Director, Center for American Politics and Citizenship Professor, Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland "Powerfully persuasive in its exhaustive research, Three's a Crowd may surprise many by revealing the long- ignored but pivotal impact of Perot voters on every national election since 1992." ---Clay Mulford, Jones Day and General Counsel to the 1992 Perot Presidential Campaign and to the Reform Party. "Rapaport and Stone have written an engaging and important book. They bring fresh perspectives, interesting data, and much good sense to this project. Three's a Crowd is fundamentally about political change, which will, in turn, change how scholars and pundits think of Ross Perot in particular, and third parties in general." ---John G. Geer, Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University and Editor of The Journal of Politics "The definitive analysis of the Perot movement, its role in the 1994 GOP victory, and the emergence of an enduring governing majority." ---L. Sandy Maisel, Director, Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs, Colby College Three's a Crowd begins with the simple insight that third parties are creatures of the American two-party system, and derive their support from the failures of the Democratic and Republican parties. While third parties flash briefly in the gaps left by those failures, they nevertheless follow a familiar pattern: a sensation in one election, a disappointment in the next. Rapoport and Stone conclude that this steep arc results from one or both major parties successfully absorbing the third party's constituency. In the first election, the third party raises new issues and defines new constituencies; in the second, the major parties move in on the new territory. But in appropriating the third party's constituents, the major parties open themselves up to change. This is what the authors call the "dynamic of third parties." The Perot campaign exemplified this effect in 1992 and 1996. Political observers of contemporary electoral politics missed the significance of Perot's independent campaign for the presidency in 1992. Rapoport and Stone, who had unfettered-and unparalleled-access to the Perot political machine, show how his run perfectly embodies the third-party dynamic. Yet until now no one has considered the aftermath of the Perot movement through that lens. For anyone who seeks to understand the workings of our stubbornly two-party structure, this eagerly awaited and definitive analysis will shed new light on the role of third parties in the American political system.

Examines the value of third parties as well as the cultural & structural constraints that relegate them to the periphery of American political life.

This title exlores the role of third parties in international legal contexts.--

The specialization and financial demand of global business render international transactions inherently multilateral and thus best effected through arbitration agreements. However, it often happens that – for various reasons, such as a debtor’s failure to pay damages ordered by an arbitral tribunal – third parties who did not consent to the original arbitration enter the scene. This is the first book to examine the binding effects of international commercial arbitral awards in follow-up disputes against third parties. It comprehensively analyses arbitral awards’ third-party effects under national arbitration laws, the New York Convention and private international law. Moreover, it proposes solutions under transnational law before both courts and arbitral tribunals. Applying a continuously comparative methodology that refers to specific statutory, jurisprudential and scholarly sources, this book explores the nature and implications of such aspects of third-party involvement as the following: the foundations of the doctrine of res judicata and its intrinsic connection to other tools of forum coordination; the distinction between res judicata before courts on the one hand and arbitral tribunals on the other; the application of non-mutual preclusion in favour of third parties; the potential for arbitral awards to constitute a fact in follow-up disputes; a comparison of rules and uncertainties on awards’ third-party effects under various national arbitration acts; preclusion agreements; the arbitration agreement’s scope; and judgments’ third-party effects as a shift of the participatory burden. For civil law, the author focuses on France and Switzerland (as predominant arbitral seats) and on Germany (as a Model Law example). Among common-law countries, he concentrates on England and Wales and on the United States. Statutory sources (with specific wording), leading cases and summaries of the most important scholarly discussions are all invoked. With its clear guidelines for matters currently not addressed in previous publications and likely to be raised in specific cases, this book will prove to be of immeasurable value for arbitration practitioners and academics in any jurisdiction. Business parties that seek to prevent contradicting decisions in multilateral transactions will appreciate the practically feasible alternatives it presents in the event of follow-up disputes involving third parties.

A revealing look at how independent voters have been upending the political establishment for thirty years – and how they'll decide the future of American politics. In a political system where two parties reign supreme, 40% of Americans consider themselves neither Democrats nor Republicans, but independents. Independents elected President Barack Obama in 2008 and then, in a seeming reversal, gave control of Congress to the Republicans in 2010. But who are these independents? Angry moderates? Frustrated ideologues? The base for the third party? Reformers or revolutionaries? Jacqueline Salit has spent 30 years as an insider in this growing movement of outsiders. She recounts the little-known history of this volatile force as old political institutions and categories are becoming irrelevant – even repugnant – to many Americans. An architect of unorthodox left/right coalitions within the Perot movement and Reform Party, and manager of Michael Bloomberg's three New York mayoral campaigns on the Independence Party line, Salit explores how these unclaimed voters are not only deciding elections, but reshaping the political landscape. With a surprising cast of characters – from the famous to the unknown – Salit argues that the failure to heed this movement against partisanship (and even parties) puts political careers at risk and damages essential features of American democracy. She reveals how independents underestimate their own power and how they can make the most of their newfound moment in the sun.