This book is just one of Lijphart's works to provide an excellent analysis of the impact of the shape of institutional structures on the behavior of political systems. A very useful read for anyone wishing to understand the new institutionalist approach to political science, as well as for anyone seeking a more particular understanding of electoral systems and the variables of such systems having a significant impact on the structure of political party systems, electoral outcomes, and legislative processes.

The best coparative study for European and pther countries electorial systems. Great!

Lijphart was indeed on the the most influential political scientists of his generation.

This book, however, is pure advocacy and a simple rehashing of previous work.

The quantitative analysis in this book is APPALLINGLY bad. I has become an exemplar in our department of misleading and inept use of basic statistics.

If you want to read something outstanding by Lijphart find one of his books on consociationalism.

This revision of Lijphart's Classic 'Democracies' is a first-rate survey of 36 democracies, which focuses on the relationships between a number of political variables. One of the most striking features of the book is the manner in which Lijphart divides the book into 10 areas of inquiry (e.g. electoral systems, party formations, executive power, etc.), devoting one chapter per area. He reviews the theory regarding the area of interest, while also attempting to use applied examples from the 36 countries to illustrate that theory. He then tries to construct rough numerical indices to outline more formally the degree and extent to which qualitative differences exist. This helps in conceptualizing how (dis)similar two countries are with respect to one another.

The other outstanding aspect of the book is that by the end, the reader is broadly familiar with the structure of all 36 democracies. You walk away understanding how diverse the party formations of federal Germany are, or how UK Commonwealths tend to mirror their colonial power in terms of parliamentary power, centralisation of power, and so forth.

Because of its lucid and and pragmatic structure, as well as its strong comparative approach, I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about what features differentiate democracies and why France is or is not similar to Japan or Paupa New Guinea--an excellent study by a classic thinker!

To the reader from California

Arend Lijphart is a staple of political science honours classes in Australia with good reason. As for the Communist manifesto - good in theory - not so good in practice - all people need the right to free expression 'cos they're humans capable of independent thought - they're not drones! Cf. fall of eastern bloc!