Political party is just a group of people getting together to help each other get elected.
A bit like a criminal syndicate or a gang. Probably more gang like, they have their "colors" and slogans.
It basically makes it much easier for those people and corporations who wish to buy favor of the legislature to do so. Now, they only need to "donate" to the party that gains power (usually by donating to both). This has been shown to be a very lucrative investment strategy with returns well into the thousands of percent.
There's also the fact that winner take all election systems basically make collusion into two parties the optimal strategy.
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