Editing Duverger's law (section)

== Exceptions ==
First-past-the-post voting can result in [[Landslide victory|landslide victories]], where one party wins all seats, for example [[2022 Barbadian general election]].

=== Regional parties ===
[[File:UK popular vote.svg|thumb|upright=1|Effect of Duverger's law in UK. The graph shows the vote share of each political party since 1832. Around 1920, a third party (Labour, red) displaces one of the two major parties at the time (Liberal, yellow). After 1980, several third parties build local strongholds and reduce the vote share of the two major parties.]]

Some minor parties in winner-take-all systems have managed to translate their support into winning seats in government by focusing on local races, taking the place of a major party, or changing the political system.

[[William H. Riker]], citing [[Douglas W. Rae]], noted that strong regional parties can lead to more than two parties receiving seats in the national legislature, even if there are only two parties competitive in any single district.<ref name="riker">{{cite journal |last1=Riker |first1=William H. |author-link1=William H. Riker |date=December 1982 |title=The Two-party System and Duverger's Law: An Essay on the History of Political Science |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/twoparty-system-and-duvergers-law-an-essay-on-the-history-of-political-science/3CA289C649AFCB8D4CC8F430FC292CC3 |journal=[[American Political Science Review]] |volume=76 |issue=4 |pages=753–766 |doi=10.1017/s0003055400189580 |jstor=1962968 |access-date=12 April 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rae |first1=Douglas W. |title=The political consequences of electoral laws |date=1971 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=0300015178 |edition=Rev. |location=New Haven |lccn=74161209 |oclc=993822935 |author-link1=Douglas W. Rae}}</ref> In systems outside the United States, like Canada,<ref name="riker" /> United Kingdom and India, multiparty parliaments exist due to the growth of minor parties finding strongholds in specific regions, potentially lessening the psychological fear of a wasted vote by voting for a minor party for a legislative seat.<ref>
{{cite journal |last1=Dunleavy |first1=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Dunleavy |last2=Diwakar |first2=Rekha |year=2013 |title=Analysing multiparty competition in plurality rule elections |url= http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/38452/1/Dunleavy_Analysing%20multiparty_2014_author.pdf|journal=[[Party Politics]] |volume=19 |issue=6 |pages=855–886 |doi=10.1177/1354068811411026 |s2cid=18840573}}</ref> Riker credits Canada's highly decentralized system of government as encouraging minor parties to build support by winning seats locally, which then sets the parties up to get representatives in the [[House of Commons of Canada]].<ref name="riker" />