Minor party in the context of "Major parties"

A two-party system is a political party system in which two major political parties consistently dominate the political landscape. At any point in time, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature and is usually referred to as the majority or governing party while the other is the minority or opposition party. Around the world, the term is used to refer to one of two kinds of party systems. Both result from Duverger's law, which demonstrates that "winner-take-all" or "first-past-the-post" elections produce two dominant parties over time.

The first type of two-party system is an arrangement in which all (or nearly all) elected officials belong to one of two major parties. In such systems, minor or third parties rarely win any seats in the legislature. Such systems exist, for example, in the United States, the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Zimbabwe. In such systems, while chances for third-party candidates winning election to major national office are remote, it is possible for factions within the larger parties to exert influence on one or even both of the two major parties.

Third party, or minor party, is a term used in the United States' two-party system for political parties other than the Democratic and Republican parties. The Electoral College for presidential elections and the plurality voting system for most other elections have established a two-party system in American politics. Third parties are most often encountered in presidential elections and while third-party candidates rarely win elections, they can have an effect on them through vote splitting and other impacts.

With few exceptions, the U.S. system has two major parties which have won, on average, 98% of all state and federal seats. According to Duverger's law two main political parties emerge in political systems with plurality voting in single-member districts. In this case, votes for minor parties can potentially be regarded as splitting votes away from the most similar major party. Third party vote splitting exceeded a president's margin of victory in three elections: 1844, 2000, and 2016.

A crossbencher is a minor party or independent member of some legislatures, such as the Parliament of Australia. In the British House of Lords the term refers to members of the parliamentary group of non-political peers. They take their name from the crossbenches, between and perpendicular to the government and opposition benches, where crossbenchers sit in the chamber.

The Italian Democratic Socialist Party (Italian: Partito Socialista Democratico Italiano, PSDI), also known as Italian Social Democratic Party, was a social-democratic political party in Italy. The longest serving partner in government for Christian Democracy, the PSDI was an important force in Italian politics, before the 1990s decline in votes and members. The party's founder and longstanding leader was Giuseppe Saragat, who served as President of the Italian Republic from 1964 to 1971. Compared to the like-minded Italian Socialist Party, it was more centrist, at least until Bettino Craxi's leadership, in fact, it identified with the centre-left.

After a rightward shift in the 1990s, which led some observers to question the PSDI as a social democratic party, it was expelled from the European Socialist Party. When Enrico Ferri founded with Luigi Preti the current European Liberal Social Democracy (SOLE), which was in favour of an alliance with Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition, the choice was stigmatized by the PES and the Socialist International, and an official statement was issued. In January 1995, the party congress put the current of Ferri and Preti in the minority and elected Gian Franco Schietroma as secretary. After the party was disbanded in 1998, the majority went to the Socialist Party of the centre-left coalition, while the party's right-wing current joined centre-right coalition parties. In 2004, the party was established with the same name, Italian Democratic Socialist Party, which remains a minor party associated with both centre-left and centre-right coalitions.

A major party is a political party that holds substantial influence in a country's politics, standing in contrast to a minor party.

In German politics, a grand coalition (German: Große Koalition [ˈɡʁoːsə koaliˈt͡si̯oːn] , shortened to: German: Groko [ˈɡʁoːkoː] ) is a governing coalition between the two parties with the most parliamentarians on federal or state level. The term is generally linked to a coalition between the centre-right CDU/CSU alliance (Union, consisting of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) parties) and the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), since they have historically been the major parties in most state and federal elections since 1949. The meaning of the term changed due to the growth of some formerly minor parties in recent years. It is the current governing coalition of Germany under the Merz cabinet following the 2025 federal election, and marks the first time that one of the two parties does not have the most or second most seats in the Bundestag (the AfD won the second most seats). Therefore, the latest coalition between CDU/CSU and SPD is often instead described as a black-red coalition, referring to the respective colors of the two blocs. If the coalition also includes the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), it is called a "Germany coalition" (German: Deutschland-Koalition (de)), with the party colors matching the flag of Germany: black for CDU/CSU, red for SPD and yellow for FDP.