Uniparty
Political science term
Uniparty is a political term referring to the idea that seemingly separate political parties, typically the two dominant parties in a liberal democracy, function in practice as a single entity. It is often applied to the Republican Party and the Democratic Party in the United States, or to the Conservative Party and the Labour Party in the United Kingdom. The concept implies that despite their outward disagreements, the parties collaborate behind closed doors and share a unified set of political and economic interests, effectively creating a de facto one-party state. Proponents of this idea argue that such a "uniparty" suppresses genuine political alternatives and dissenting viewpoints by exercising control over the media, grassroots organisations, and ballot access regulations.
01Use by country
United States
"Uniparty" dates back to a 1944 scandal wherein a letter (which turned out to be a forgery) was claimed to show that Franklin D. Roosevelt had selected Wendell Willkie to be his opponent in the 1940 election. Supporters of the 2000 Green Party presidential bid of Ralph Nader used the term extensively, and Nader himself called the prevailing political structure a "corporate uniparty" in his 2002 book Crashing the Party.
Afterwards, the term was largely dormant, being sporadically used by third parties until it was adopted by Steve Bannon in describing how in his view the Republican "establishment" was working with the Democrats to suppress Donald Trump's campaign seeking the 2016 Republican nomination. The term saw resurgence in 2024 with claims by figures including Marjorie Taylor Greene and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that the two-party system operates as a uniparty. When Elon Musk announced he would create his own third party, the America Party, on 5 July 2025, he stated that he was doing so because the Republicans and Democrats had become a "Uniparty".
United Kingdom
Proponents of the theory in Britain on right and left have claimed that the Conservative Party, Labour Party, and Liberal Democrats are indistinguishable from each other. More broadly, it has been increasingly used in the wake of centrist political developments such as New Labour under Tony Blair and One Nation during the tenure of David Cameron. These ideas became especially prominent during the Labour leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, Brexit, and the rise of Reform UK under Nigel Farage.
Australia
The term became prominent in Australia following the rise of One Nation, a right-wing populist political party, which frequently applies the term to the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal-National Coalition.
The term has also been used by progressive media organisation Michael West Media after the Labor Party and Liberal/National Coalition combined to support political donation changes seen as favouring the two major parties.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Uniparty”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.
