ABSTRACT
This book provides a concise and accessible account of the historical experience of European parliaments – why different electoral systems were adopted, how they have functioned, how they have affected the development of political parties, and in what respects they have been found over time to be either suitable or unsatisfactory. The book begins with a summary of the main electoral systems, analysing and re-assessing each in the light of historical experience. The core of the book, however, is a country-by-country account of the systems which have operated in each of the main West European countries, in the context of their own constitutional, political and social developments.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |6 pages
Introduction
part |40 pages
Electoral Systems
chapter |6 pages
The Earlier Electoral Systems
chapter |9 pages
Party-List Systems of Proportional Representation
chapter |8 pages
Proportionality
chapter |4 pages
Voting for Individuals
chapter |11 pages
The Single Transferable Vote
part |25 pages
Belgium and the Netherlands
chapter |11 pages
Belgium
chapter |12 pages
The Netherlands
part |48 pages
The Nordic Countries
part |26 pages
Austria and Switzerland
chapter |12 pages
Austria
chapter |12 pages
Switzerland
part |40 pages
The Great Powers on the Continent
part |26 pages
The United Kingdom and Ireland