This study is intended to analyze the effects of different electoral list models, classified in two basic groups: electoral rules for proportional representation which either (1) reserve the parties the monopoly of electoral ranking or (2) provide for intra-partisan competition according to preferential votes as the procedure for defining the final make-up of the party's membership in the Legislature. The article examines 51 national cases, seeking to evaluate the consequences of different types of lists on both the party systems' dynamics and institutional performance. The results show that after controlling for other variables, electoral lists are insufficient to explain the observed differences between the respective democracies.
electoral rules; preferential vote; parties
