The Economist notes that "if democracy means multi-party competition at the grass roots, America is not a full democracy in elections to the House of Representatives."
"The sheer uncompetitiveness of most House races takes one's breath away. In 2002, four out of five of them were won by more than 20 points. The average margin was a stunning two to one, meaning some races had even bigger margins. Last time, 200 races had margins of 40 points of more and 80 were uncontested. So far this year, the uncontested figure is 68. In 2002, just four incumbents lost to challengers at the polls (another four lost in primaries). North Korea might be proud of the incumbent re-election rate: 99%. More than nine in ten Americans live in districts that are, in practice, one-party monopolies."
Larry Sabato has a good overview of the House races: "The Crystal Ball, though sad to put on hold its tradition of a Nifty Fifty set of exciting congressional races, is proud to unveil this year's look at the races most worthy of our consideration: a group of the thirty truly competitive races across the country we've dubbed the Dirty Thirty."
