There is little room to give one's contribution an individual proﬁle. To participate as an author in projects like this one is neither easy nor fun. Important academic support came from Max Kaase, whose energetic recognition of the relevance and the viability of our plans has helped a lot in decisive moments of our work. On behalf of the DFG, Helga Hoppe has administered the project in the most conﬁdent and competent Earlier related projects were also supported by the Volkswagen Foundation, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Interamerican Institute for Human Rights (San José, Costa Rica). For invaluable ﬁnancial support in the preparation of this handbook we are indebted to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). For the realization of this plan the help of many people and organizations has been, and still remains, indispensable. Further steps will include an updated and reworked edition of the handbook on Latin America and, ﬁnally, a similar volume on Asia, which both will be published by Oxford University Press. Building on the experience of this data handbook which had received a strong impulse from the numerous democratization processes in Latin America, and under the impetus of political regime changes in Africa, we began in 1994 to conceptualize another project with the aim of compiling an as complete as possible systematic documentation of electoral data of African countries since independence. The result was published in 1993 in German (Handbuch der Wahldaten Lateinamerikas und der Karibik) and in Spanish (Enciclopedia Electoral Latinoamericana y del Caribe). In the late 1980s a multinational research group directed by Dieter Nohlen began a new stage of the larger project (though under a different label), now working on parliamentary and presidential elections in Latin America and the Caribbean. In the same year Dieter Nohlen published his Wahlsysteme der Welt, a systematic handbook on electoral systems of the world. In 1978 a second, two-volume book was published on Africa under the subtitle Politische Organisation und Repräsentation in Afrika, principally authored by Franz Nuscheler and Klaus Ziemer. The ﬁrst result of this project was the publication of Die Wahl der Parlamente (1969), a twovolume book containing documentation and analyses of the electoral development of all European countries. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 0-19-829645-2Īcknowledgements This handbook is part of a continuous scientiﬁc work on elections, electoral systems and political development in different world regions realized at the Institute of Political Science of the University of Heidelberg since the 1960s, when Dolf Sternberger and Bernhard Vogel initiated a voluminous research project on ‘The Election of Parliaments and other State Organs’. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi São Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Dieter Nohlen 1999 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 1999 All rights reserved. Edited By Dieter Nohlen Michael Krennerich and Bernhard Thibaut

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