Customer Reviews

Electoral Systems: A Comparative Introduction

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I recently received this book and read it quite thoroughly. I was very much impressed. Most books on the subject are extremely expensive or unobtainable. And when I saw the book I was surprised by its slimness. But Farrell manages to cover the topic with surprising completeness, describing all the most important systems, giving illustrations of ballots, explanations of the counting procedure in complex systems, and generally doing a complete job.

While I have also recently read Douglas Amy's "Real Choices, New Voices," and was favorably impressed by the explanations in Amy's book, Amy's goal was to sell one particular class of voting system: proportional representation. Therefore Amy minimizes the disadvantages of PR and emphasizes its advantages. While Farrell has his favorite system (and it is one of Amy's preferred systems, as well as one I like), he only mentions it near the very end; Farrell's book is much more impartial and leaves it to the reader to evaluate the various electoral systems, an approach that I prefer.

I very much recommend this book.

This is the best recent overview of comparative election systems accessible to a general readership. It contains information and comparisons that are very hard to come by elsewhere in the political science literature.

It's a good "first stop" for anyone needing an analytical overview of the election systems of the democratic world.

Used this for a comparative legislative process class, it has helped me with a number of classes after because the information is so clear and detailed.