Only 31 percent of seats in the Massachusetts House of Representatives are being contested in the elections this Nov. 5, making Massachusetts the 49th least competitive state in the United States, according to a recent study by CommonWealth magazine.

The study, conducted by CommonWealth Associate Editor Robert David Sullivan, showed that of the 160 positions in the Massachusetts House of Representatives only 50 of them will have more than one candidate running. The only state with fewer contended positions is South Carolina.

Sullivan stressed the importance of having more than one candidate in elections.

“[Without opposing sides] we won’t be able to know what the voters are saying. “An election is supposed to say something about the will of the people,” he said. An election that takes place without opposition “means less,” he said.

Sullivan said the study was prompted by curiosity stemming from the impending elections.

“We didn’t know how bad we were going to be. Sometimes you can’t tell how bad things are in your own backyard,” Sullivan said, adding lack of competition can mean less accountability on the parts of elected officials.

“The voters deserve to have their legislators be held accountable,” he said. When there is no competition “they don’t have to answer to anybody.”

“This [study] shines a big bright light on the problem,” said Jennifer Armini, the communications director for CommonWealth and The Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth, the magazine’s publisher. Armini also said MassINC has a civil renewal initiative, and said he hopes the results of the study will make more people want to get involved in their state government.

“There’s really a problem at the grassroots level,” Armini said. “People in Massachusetts are not participating in the most direct [way] – running for office.”

According to Sullivan’s research, the Massachusetts Republican Party has significant trouble with grassroots support. The Republicans have fielded candidates in less than half the elections, perhaps discouraged by the 84 percent Democrat majority in the state.

“The Republican Party in Massachusetts is not well organized,” Armini said. “It’s clear that [they] have a lot of work to do in engaging people.” Armini also cited the “power of incumbency in Massachusetts” as part of the problem.

Sullivan’s study showed third parties such as the Green or Libertarian parties are often able to field candidates when the two major parties are not.

Patrick Keaney, press secretary for Green Party gubernatorial candidate Jill Stein, called the lack of opposition in this year’s elections “disgraceful.”

Keaney cited the Clean Elections Law, which was passed in 1998, as a potential means to give more people the ability to run for office, but blamed incumbents for thwarting the law’s effectiveness, saying they “stopped it from going forward” because they are comfortable with the lack of competition.

“It’s the extension of a disturbing trend,” he said. “We [in Massachusetts] have a reputation for being the ‘cradle of democracy,’ but we’re actually kind of a joke in that regard … It’s disgraceful.”