The field of electoral systems research: A critical survey

The purpose of this article is to survey and evaluate the development and the current state of the field of electoral systems research. It will treat both the field's strengths and its weaknesses, but my main emphasis will be on the weaknesses and, on the whole, I shall be quite critical. My critique will move from the general to the specific: I shall begin with some very general observations concerning the state of the field, and end with a discussion of one specific, but by no means minor, problem: the crucial question of how we should measure the degree of proportionality or disproportionality of different electoral systems.