This is a group research and presentation task, so what follows is the method, the checklist a good case study must meet, and one sample entry you can use as a model.
Method
- Divide into groups of 5–6. Pick six countries from six different continents so that the comparison is genuinely global — for example one each from Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, South America and Oceania.
- For each country find out one thing first: how are votes converted into seats? Classify it against the three types in the chapter's table — FPTP (plurality), majority (two-round), or proportional representation. Some countries use a mixed system, and some use one system for the lower house and another for the upper house, exactly as India does.
- Use only sources you can name — the country's own election management body, its constitution, or an international body such as International IDEA, which the chapter mentions as an ECI partner.
- For the latest election, record the same four things for every country so the comparison is fair: date, turnout, vote share of the main parties, and seats won.
- Present it as one comparison table plus one short paragraph per country, and end with a discussion.
What a good case study must contain
- The name of the electoral system and the rule in one sentence ("the candidate with most votes wins", "seats in proportion to votes", "two rounds if nobody crosses 50%").
- Whether the system is used for the whole legislature or only part of it.
- Vote share and seat share side by side — this is the single most revealing column, because the gap between the two shows what the system is doing.
- Whether the result was a single-party government or a coalition, and whether that follows from the system.
- Your sources, listed at the end.
Sample answer:
| Country | Continent | System for the lower house | What to record from the latest election |
|---|---|---|---|
| India | Asia | FPTP for the Lok Sabha; PR with single transferable vote for the Rajya Sabha | Vote share and seats of each recognised party, from the ECI's statistical report |
Written out, the India entry would read: India uses the First-Past-The-Post system for the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabhas, which means the candidate with the most votes in a constituency wins even without crossing 50%. The Rajya Sabha, the Vidhan Parishad, the President and the Vice President are elected indirectly, under proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote. The Election Commission of India, a permanent constitutional body set up on 25 January 1950, conducts all of these. For the latest Lok Sabha election our group compared each party's vote share with its seat share using the ECI's own statistical report, and found that… — and here you fill in the figures you actually looked up, with the source cited.