After several decades of virtual neglect (except for Douglas Rae's seminal work), the comparative study of electoral systems is undergoing a lively revival. In the past five years, over a dozen books on electoral systems have been written by...

After several decades of virtual neglect (except for Douglas Rae's seminal work), the comparative study of electoral systems is undergoing a lively revival. In the past five years, over a dozen books on electoral systems have been written by scholars from many nations and from many disciplines (see reviews of a number of these in Lijphart, Political geography, long moribund, is undergoing a remarkable renaissance (see reviews in Grofman, Taylor, Gudgin, and Johnston, this volume). Social choice theorists have begun to link axiomatic criteria for representative systems to practical political issues in choosing an election system (see especially Brams and Fishburn, Fishburn, this volume). In the United States, sparked in large part by the efforts of the section on Representation and Electoral Systems of the American Political Science Association, the history of American electoral experimentation with proportional representation, weighted voting, and limited voting is being rediscovered (see Grofman Weaver, this volume).This renewed scholarly attention to the study of electoral systems is long overdue. The late Stein Rokkan wrote as recently as 1968, "Given the crucial importance of the organization of legitimate elections in the development of the mass democracies of the twentieth century, it is indeed astounding to discover how little serious effort has been invested in the comparative study of the wealth of information available” (Rokkan, 1968, 17). The long past neglect of electoral systems by social scientists is especially surprising since election rules not only have important effects on other elements of the political system, especially the party system, but also offer a practical instrument for political engineers who want to make changes in the political system. Indeed, Sartori aptly characterizes electoral systems as ”the most specific manipulative instrument of politics” 273).

Part 1. The Effect of Election Type on Political Competition: 1. Duverger's Law Revisited (William H. Riker, University of Rochester); 2. The Influence of Electoral Sysems: Faulty Laws or

Part 1. The Effect of Election Type on Political Competition: 1. Duverger's Law Revisited (William H. Riker, University of Rochester); 2. The Influence of Electoral Sysems: Faulty Laws or Faulty Method? (Giovanni Sartori, Columbia University); 3. Duverger's Law: Forty Years Later (Maurice Duverger, University of Paris); 4. Intraparty Preference Voting (Richard S. Katz, Johns Hopkins University); 5. Thinking About the Length and Renewability of Electoral Terms (William R. Keech, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) Part II. Evaluating the Impact of Electoral Laws: Proportional and Semiproportional Systems Case Studies: 6. Proportionality by Non-PR Methods: Ethnic Representation in Belgium, Cyprus, Lebanon, New Zealand, West Germany and Zimbabwe (Arend Lijphart); 7. Australian Experience with Majority-Preferential and Quota-Preferential Systems (Jack F. H. Wright, Proportional Representational Society of Australia); 8. The Rise, Decline and Resurrection of Proportional Representation in Local Governments in the United States (Leon Weaver, Michigan State University); 9. The Limited Vote and the Single Nontransferable Vote: Lessons from the Japanese and Spanish Examples (Arend Lijphart; Rafael Lopez Pintor, Universidad Autonoma, Madrid, and Yasunori Sone, Keio University, Tokyo); 10 Degrees of Proportion-ality of Proportional Representation Formulas (Arend Lijphart) Part III. Evaluating the Impact of Electoral Laws:Plurality Systems: 11. The Geography of Representation: A Review of Recent Findings (Peter J. Taylor, University of Newcastle upon Tyne; Graham Gudgin, University of Cambridge; and R. J. Johnston, University of Sheffield) 12. Social Choice and Plurality-like Electoral Systems (Peter C. Fishburn, AT&T Bell Laboratories); 13. The Effect of At-Large Versus District Elections in U.S. Municipalities (Richard L. Engstrom and Michael D. McDonald, University of New Orleans); 14. The Nonpartisan Ballot in the United States Carol A. Cassel, University of Alabama); 15. Ballot Format in Plurality Partisan Elections (Howard A. Scarrow, SUNY, Stony Brook); 16. Cross-Endorsement and Cross-Filing in Plurality Partisan Elections (Howard A. Scarrow) Part IV. Redistricting:< 17. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE REAPPORTIONMENT REVOLUTION IN THE UNITED STATES? (GORDON E. BAKER, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA); 18. CONSTITUENCY REDISTRIBUTION IN BRITAIN: RECENT ISSUES (R. J. JOHNSTON); 19. DISTRICTING CHOICES UNDER THE SINGLE-TRANSFERABLE VOTE (PETER MAIR, UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER) References and Author Index, Court Cases, Subject Index