Powell (2000) has produced a similar typology based on the formal constitutional
rules for electing representatives and making policy decisions, in which he refers to
the ‘‘majoritarian’’ and ‘‘proportional’’ visions of democracy. The ‘‘majoritarian’’
vision calls for electoral rules that allow a majority of voters to elect a government,
and for that government to enact policies without institutional impediments. The
majoritarian vision allows a political party to assume governmental power and to
enact its political program with full accountability to the voters. The proportional
vision by contrast is more concerned with minorities that might never be represented
in a majoritarian system, and calls for proportional representation, coalition governments,
and mechanisms of power sharing, such as bicameralism, and the representation
of the opposition in parliamentary standing committees