Electoral systems define the manner in which the political system of any individual country operates, and fulfil a number of important functions, which differ according to the nature of the electoral system. The primary function of an electoral system is clearly to operate efficiently and legitimately, but it can also influence the political system in terms of the degree of social representation, the number of political parties in government and so on. Electoral systems can be classified in various manners, one method being according to the `output' of the election, for example `proportional' or `non-proportional' outcomes. This essay distinguishes between proportionally representative (PR) systems and non-proportional electoral systems, namely plurality and majority voting. Proportional representation systems, in their pure form, have voters cast one vote for a party or party list in a multi-member district and then, by an according rule, the number of seats is distributed proportionally...