LECTORAL SYSTEMS
.
Revolutionary changes in electoral laws occurred repeatedly inEurope in the twentieth century. There were fourshifts from majority systems to proportional repre-sentation. The first occurred after 1918; the sec-ond, after the collapse of the totalitarian regimes of Germany and Italy in 1945; the third in 1989–1991, after the implosion of the Warsaw Pactcountries and the Soviet Union; the fourthemerged in 1989–1991. In the fourth shift, pro-portional representation was introduced after thefall of dictatorships in Southern Europe: Greece(1974), Portugal (1975), and Spain (1976)