Attempts to characterize political systems in terms of discrete political institutions
share three problems, however. First, no political system is an ideal-type combination
of these various institutions, but a conglomeration of institutional details that come
together as a semi-coherent whole. Second, the functioning of political institutions
depends upon the exact distribution of votes amongst political parties in elections,
and the ways in which institutional rules and procedures convert those vote shares
into distributions of parliamentary seats and shares of governmental power, as well as
the decision-making rules for making governmental and legislative decisions. Third,