Abstract
Electoral systems are a very powerful predictor of the party system format in Western democracies. Specifically, electoral systems with single-seat districts (plurality systems) are said to lead in many cases to the concentration of party system, whereas proportional elections with large districts are known to be inclusive electoral institutions, thus allowing a high fragmentation of the party system (Duverger, 1951; Norris, 1997; Rae, 1967; Taagepera and Shugart, 1989). Do these widely accepted results also hold for post-communist democracies in Europe? Several studies suggest that they do not (for instance, Moser, 1999a, p. 384; Moser and Scheiner, 2004, pp. 595–8). As outlined in the introduction to this book, many results of elections in Central and Eastern Europe deviated substantially from the outcomes which might have been expected from common electoral system models.
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