| Abstract: | Which factors are decisive for the extent of the legislative party fragmentation in the German Laender? While the institutional approach stresses the importance of the electoral design, the sociological theory considers the degree of heterogeneity within a society and the resulting cleavages the determining factors. In this article hypotheses are derived from both theories. The analysis of these hypotheses is based on aggregate data. It is shown that religious heterogeneity exerts the greatest influence on party fragmentation. Besides, factors of socio-economic modernisation matter while the only institutional variable of relevance is district magnitude. |
