Group Says 2-Party System in U.S. Contributes to Erosion of Democracy : Politics: Rainbow Lobby believes the cure for low voter turnout is an Eastern European-style opening of political access.

Many Americans have watched the flowering of democracy in Eastern Europe with a sense of pride. Nancy Ross looks on in frustration and envy.

The outbreak of free elections in Eastern Europe and the multitude of political parties competing for support have only heightened Ross’ conviction that something is wrong in this country. She argues that the antidote to low voter turnout, public disgust at negative campaigns and the absence of substantive debate in campaigns is a little Eastern European-style politics.

Ross, the executive director of the Rainbow Lobby, a small, left-liberal, grass-roots organization, believes that the two major political parties in this country have a stranglehold on the process and that their collusion protects incumbents and freezes candidates with radical or innovative ideas out of the political dialogue.

Her group is trying to attract attention to a package of proposals that Ross believes will stimulate interest in the political process. “Our main concern is the erosion of democracy in this country,” she said.

The Rainbow Lobby was organized in 1985 by a number of people who had worked the year before on Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign (hence the similarity of the name to the Rainbow Coalition, even though there is no connection).

So far, it has made little dent on the political process and is lightly regarded on Capitol Hill. And there is nothing to suggest that the current quest is anything other than quixotic. But for activists like Ross, a former school board member in New York City and a founder of the New Alliance Party, hope springs eternal.

Ross argues that the two political parties have “set up the rules to lock third-party candidates out.”

In 1988, for example, a third-party candidate for President had to obtain 674,495 valid petition signatures to be listed on the ballots in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Realistically, candidates need to collect twice that number, because many signatures are ruled invalid. That is 26.5 times the number needed by a Democratic candidate and 11 times the number needed by a Republican candidate.

In Florida, third-party candidates not only need 56,000 valid signatures--each on a separate postcard--but also must pay 10 cents for each signature they submit.

The solution, says Ross, is a bill sponsored by Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) that is designed to make it easier for independent candidates or third parties to gain access to the ballot throughout the country by sharply reducing the number of signatures needed to qualify.

Conyers got interested in the idea from his work on voter registration. He introduced the bill in the last session of Congress but it got no hearings. The same fate appears to await the bill this year.

But Julien Epstein, a Conyers aide who is staff director of the House Government Operations Committee, said recent events in Eastern Europe put the U.S. system in a new light. “There is a growing sense here that it is time for imaginative forms of changes and opportunities,” he said.

Conyers’ bill has been referred to the House Administration Committee, but an aide to Rep. Al Swift (D-Wash.), chairman of the elections subcommittee, said no hearings are planned, in part because Swift is “hesitant” to mandate federal election standards for the states.

Swift also comes from a state with relatively easy ballot access, and the aide said that he believes the proliferation of candidates on the ballot in the race to fill the Senate vacancy created by the death of Democrat Henry M. Jackson led to considerable confusion among voters.

Many political analysts argue that the two-party system in America helps provide stability to the electoral and governing process. Party primaries help to filter out unacceptable candidates, and the parties provide checks against one another’s power without bringing about the kind of governmental paralysis often seen in multiparty systems.

But with the decline of allegiance to the parties by voters and the increased tendency of candidates to run on their own merits rather than their party’s, outsiders such as Ross see the two parties joining to defend a decaying system.

To encourage a livelier political dialogue, the group wants legislation that would guarantee a spot in future presidential debates to legitimate independent or third-party candidates who have qualified for the ballot in at least 40 states and raised at least $500,000.

In 1988, the debates were organized by a commission controlled by the two major parties. Under the Rainbow Lobby’s proposal, the debates would have included Libertarian Party candidate Ron Paul and New Alliance Party candidate Lenora Fulani.

Ross has heard many of the arguments against the proliferation of parties and candidates, but she believes public apathy represents a rejection of the system, a reality that politicians can no longer ignore.

What would these proposals produce? “You might see something like Eastern Europe,” Ross said. “You might see increased . . . participation. You might see a greater discussion of issues. It’s a scandal that so few people vote.”