Corporate duopoly

"The United States is also a one-party state but, with typical American extravagance, they have two of them." - Julius Nyerere

Corporate duopoly is a phrase used to describe the political situation in the modern United States, where the two ruling parties both serve the same corporate interests. These parties are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. They exist to provide a false sense of "competition" during election seasons.

The "first past the post" electoral system makes it difficult for third parties to compete for political power. In other bourgeois dictatorships (so-called "liberal democracies") such as those in Europe, there are far more political parties represented in parliaments and congresses.

Given the shared ownership, the corporate media loyally serves the political interests of the corporate duopoly. This is evident by the demonization of those who challenge the status quo; ranging from communists, socialists, left-liberals like Bernie Sanders, and even free-market libertarians like Ron Paul whose anti-war positions threaten the war profiteers.

Methods for defeat

Elections

While elections under capitalism are usually unable to produce meaningful change, the ballot box can still be used as a method of educating and agitating the workers to become political.

As for enhancing the democratic power of voters to fight against the power of capital within bourgeois parliaments, the following policies can help strengthen popular will:

• Ranked-choice voting as opposed to first-past-the-post voting
• Publicly-funded elections as opposed to privately funded elections which often rely on corporate donations

Extra-electoral means

The construction of alternative forms of political power is necessary when bourgeois elections do not allow for the popular will to be implemented in society. Such alternative forms can be described as dual power. These are similar to Soviets (which translates to "council") in the USSR, Basij councils in Iran, etc.