ABSTRACT
To what extent are the different party systems in Europe "produced," at least in part, by their electoral systems? For those who view the world of electoral systems through the dichotomy of single member plurality (SMP) versus proportional representation (PR), Europe hardly provides a balanced sample. SMP now exists only in the United Kingdom, with everywhere else (save France) using either all proportional representation (including the single transferable vote variant) or a mixture including PR. In this analysis we shall not get into all the minutia of electoral systems (for this, Lijphart 1990 is recommended), although the formula used for PR is given in the country analyses, and data on districts for the current systems are given in the appendix table for this chapter. One point worth stressing, however, is the presence of thresholds, which, if they exist, are given in Table 4.1.
