The data that we have reported suggest that electoral rules are seldom correlated with economic development and degree of democracy. We are not surprised by the nil finding concerning the economy. The economy may be a strong prerequisite in the democratization process but it may have little to do in the precise forms of democracy that a country chooses.
But the general absence of a relationship between the degree of democracy and the nature of electoral rules is more perplexing. In our view, coming to an understanding of why it is so should be a top priority on the research agenda. This suggests the lack of consensus on even the minimal conditions under which elections should be contested in a democracy. Why is it that almost everyone appears to agree that voting age should be 18 while there seems to be no agreement that the election should be conducted by a completely free and independent agency?
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