PROPORTIONALITY IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS: EVIDENCE SINCE 1979.

Proportionality profiles developed by Taagepera and Laakso have earlier been used for describing effects of national electoral systems. In this article we apply these profiles to European parliamentary (EP) elections of the EU15 from 1979 to 2004. Since the electoral systems of the EP elections closely resemble the national elections in the respective countries, same kind of profiles emerge as in the national elections. Therefore the members of the European parliament are chosen with many different electoral systems with different effects on the outcome. Six profiles types were found. Counting method seems to determine the profile grouping somewhat, but the strongest variables determining the shape of a countries profile appears to be the average district magnitude and the number of seats allocated to the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]