Review Articles

Advances in the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems

Arend Lijphart^a1

^a1 University of California

Michel L. Balinski and H. Peyton Young, Fair Representation: Meeting the Ideal of One Man, One Vote. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982, 191 pp.

Vernon Bogdanor, The People and the Party System: The Referendum and Electoral Reform in British Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981, 285 pp.

Andrew McLaren Carstairs, A Short History of Electoral Systems in Western Europe. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1980, 236 pp.

Paul T. David and James W. Ceaser, Proportional Representation in Presidential Nominating Politics. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1980, 298 pp.

G. Gudgin and P. J. Taylor, Seats, Votes, and the Spatial Organisation of Elections. London: Pion, 1979, 240 pp.

Geoffrey Hand, Jacques Georgel, and Christoph Sasse, eds., European Electoral Systems Handbook. London: Butterworths, 1979, 252 pp.

William P. Irvine, Does Canada Need a New Electoral System? Kingston, Ontario: Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, Queen's University, 1981, 100 pp.

R. J. Johnston, Political, Electoral, and Spatial Systems: An Essay in Political Geography. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979, 221 pp.

Richard S. Katz, A Theory of Parties and Electoral Systems. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980, 151 pp.

Thomas T. Mackie and Richard Rose, The International Almanac of Electoral History, 2d ed. New York: Facts on File, 1982, 422 pp.

Dieter Nohlen, Wahlsysteme der Welt—Daten und Analysen: Ein Handbuch [Electoral Systems of the World—Data and Analyses: A Handbook]. Munich: R. Piper, 1978, 449 pp.

Cornelius O'Leary, Irish Elections, 1918–-1977: Parties, Voters and Proportional Representation. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1979, 134 pp.

Abstract

The twelve books under review, written by scholars representing many different disciplines and nationalities, are proof that the comparative analysis of electoral systems has made significant progress in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It is still not a well-developed field, but it has clearly become a less underdeveloped one. Renewed interest in research on electoral systems has been stimulated by major changes in election rules—usually in the direction of proportional representation—that have been adopted in several countries, and by a vigorous debate on electoral reform in countries that now rely mainly on the plurality method. The United States is the principal deviant case. Two election systems frequently serve as models for electoral reform: the Irish single transferrable vote and the West German additional-member system.

Arend Lijphart is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. His publications include Democracy in Plural Societies (1977), Conflict and Coexistence in Belgium (1981), Representation and Redistricting Issues (1982, co-edited with Bernard Grofman, Robert McKay, and Howard Scarrow), and Democracies (1984). He is currently working on a comparative study of election rules and party systems.