1. Lijphart: C4 and C5  An Overview of 36 Democracies  Party Systems

5. Party System Basics  Political Parties  Party Systems  Coalitions/Coalition Potential

6. Counting Parties  Straightforward Counting  Discounting those who do no win seats  Coalition potential  Blackmail potential  Dominant v. Half Parties  Laakso and Taagepera: the effective number of parties index

8. Counting Parties  Examples of the Effective Number of Parties: here. here

10. Four Key Elements of the Strict Two-Party System in the US 1.Single-Member-District Plurality Elections 2.Weak and Uncohesive Parties 3.Primary Elections 4.Presidentialism

11. Israel: the 16th Knesset Elections (2003) Source: http://www.knesset.gov.il/elections16/eng/results/regions.asphttp://www.knesset.gov.il/elections16/eng/results/regions.asp

12. Israeli Elections 2006

13. Israel: The 17 th Knesset (2006) Source: http://www.knesset.gov.il/elections17/eng/Results/main_results_eng.asphttp://www.knesset.gov.il/elections17/eng/Results/main_results_eng.asp

15. Colombian Senate: Effective Number of Electoral (Nv) and Parliamentary Parties (Ns), 1974-2002 NvNs 19742.372.17 19782.162.01 19822.072.04 19862.582.47 19902.262.34 19913.402.94 19943.182.90 19984.173.50 20028.759.19

17. Issue Dimensions 1. Socioeconomic 2. Religious 3. Cultural-Ethnic 4. Urban-rural 5. Regime support 6. Foreign policy 7. Postmaterialist