The most definitive treatment of electoral systems, this book describes and classifies the 70 different systems used by 27 democracies in 384 elections since 1945.

1. Introduction: Goals and Methods 2. Electoral Systems: Types, Patterns, Trends 3. Disproportionality, Multipartism, and Majority Victories 4. Changes in Election Rules Between Systems in the Same Country 5. Bivariate and Multivariate Analyses 6. Four Other Potential Explanations Appendices: A: Proportional Representation Formulas B: Indices of Disproportionality and Party System Characteristics C: Data: Sources, Additions, corrections, Clarifications

Arend Lijphart , Professor of Political Science, University of California, San Diego

'in Lijphart's book we have a work which extends the data base and refines and retests a range of hypotheses ... After this study there can be no doubt that this is one area of political activity where institutions do matter a great deal' Michael Moran, Government and Opposition, Vol. 29, No. 2, Spring 1994 |d 24/06/1994