I vaguely remember voting for Anderson in 1980. He got 6% of the vote in some places. I didn't get the feeling he was just a 'spoiler' in the Perot/Nader mold.
In Italy, many people want to move in the opposite direction: TOWARDS a two-party system. In the most recent 2 elections, it was in some sense effectively between just "the right" and "the left".. a face-off between two big coalitions that had formed. These coalitions had their own names and slogans. Of course, once one or the other gets into power the winning coalition can fragment.
In the US there are also representatives that don't vote the party line or, on the rare occasion, officially switch sides. The difference here is that, while it affects certain legislation, it doesn't change the executive, which in the European parliamentary system is propped up by the number of reps and senators who form the "majority." When the majority shifts, the government falls; that's why Italy has had 57 "governments" since 1948. Some of these are "re-orgs" under the same PM, but in certain periods there's been a new guy at the helm every few months.. Only Berlusconi has ridden out his full five years intact due a high level of coalition discipline.
A significant number of others in Italy that don't like the 2-party idea are clamoring (believe it or not!) for a ONE-party idea.. the ultimate "big tent". This was the role of the Christian Democrats, once huge--by far the biggest party, that held a kind of conservative/Catholic/socialist sway over the country for much of the 60s/70s/80s. It was also, obviously, a hotbed of corruption which led to the "Clean Hands" movement and the exile (escape to avoid prosecution) of the PM Craxi to Tunisia. Obviously the bigger the party, the bigger the "machine" that doles out favors, and a lot of people miss that era, and Craxi is now post-humously undergoing a Nixonian, nostalgia-driven, political makeover.. with overtones of "why can't we all just get along?"..
Yeah, 2B.. Booo hoo hoo. I see how "totally out of the loop" the Republican Senate is with that big Democratic win on the min. wage... (argh).
I don't think the de facto 2-party system is the be-all and end-all; I just don't see a good logical alternative in which smaller parties could actually get the amount of attention they might merit.