A review of The Failure of Presidential Democracy, edited by Juan J. Linz and Arturo Valenzuela.
About the Author
Matthew Soberg Shugart, associate professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, is the coauthor of Presidents and Assemblies: Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics (1992).
A wide variety of electoral systems is used around the world, but in recent years the trend has been toward systems based upon greater proportionality.
Contrary to popular wisdom, emerging democracies might be better off with a majoritarian electoral system rather than one based on proportional representation.