“Bipartisan” seems to be the political catchphrase nowadays… is there any difference between bipartisan and nonpartisan? I suppose bipartisan implies two parties and nonpartisan implies no particular party. Is bipartisan the ‘american’ form of nonpartisan (since we have 2 parties here)? Just curious… not sure why.
My sense would be that the two terms are most commonly used in the United States in the following contexts:
“Nonpartisan” is most commonly used to describe rules for how candidates get on the ballot - a non-partisan process does not involve the parties in any way. Usually this will involve having a primary election where all announced candidates appear on the ballot - and the top two vote getters advance to the general election. On the general election ballot, there is no party designation for the candidates. This kind of procedure is most commonly followed in local elections (city or county level), although I believe that a nonpartisan ballot is used for at least one state legislature (Nebraska, IIRC). It will also sometimes be used to describe certain types of interest groups that A) sponsor ideas that are not closely associated with a particular party and B) that do not tend to do a lot of endorsing of candidates. The most obvious examples are probably the League of Women Voters or Common Cause. Finally, and most timely right now, it will often be used to refer to a process for redrawing district lines (Congressional or state legislative) that uses a commission, where members should be chosen for reasons other than their association with a party. Some states have such a commission (although a truly fair assessment of their “nonpartisan” character could require careful examination of who actually gets put on the commission, and who they are chosen).
“Bipartisan” is more commonly used to describe actions taken by or supported by members of both (major) parties. Some people are willing to use it very widely - referring to something that goes through a legislature with 45 Party A votes and 5 Party B votes in favor (with 7 Party A votes and 40 Party B votes against) as “Bipartisan” because at least some members of each party voted in favor of the bill - even though there is a very clear line up of Party A strongly supporting the bill, and Party B opposing it.
If there are being used in the same context - to talk about policy proposals - they probably mean pretty nearly the same thing - although I would expect a slight difference in shading. A campaign finance proposal being advocated by Common Cause (and not yet really being seriously considered by politicians) would be “nonpartisan”. If it gets picked up and sponsored by some prominent members of both (major) parties, it becomes “bipartisan”.
Of course, the meaning of “bipartisan” changes a great deal outside the United States, where there are usually at least three substantial parties contesting elections. I doubt the term is used very much at all, and certainly would not have any of the US connotation of including “everyone” in the support base.
Bipartisan: A larger-than-usual deception is being planned by the government.