Izborni sistemi i Duvergerov zakon
Electoral Systems and Duverger's law

Summary/Abstract: Scholarly and political debates demonstrate that there is no unique opinion concerning the significance of electoral systems and of their relationship towards party systems. The author discusses three controversial questions: 1) the importance of electoral systems; 2) concrete political effects; 3) the evaluation of electoral systems with regard to party systems. Special attention is paid to Duverger’s understanding of the influence exercised by electoral systems upon the party system and to the re-formulations of Duverger’s stands expressed in works by Douglas W. Rae, William Riker, and Giovanni Sartori. The author believes that the impact of the electoral system upon the party system cannot be understood simply in terms of definitions and abstract features but ought to be evaluated through an analysis of the electoral system in its concrete social and political context. The effects of electoral systems cannot be separated from concrete socio-political structures and processes nor from specific socio-political circumstances within an electoral system is created.

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