The Interpretation of the Laakso-Taagepera Effective Number of Parties
![Printer-friendly version Printer-friendly version](http://coalitiontheory.net/sites/all/modules/print/icons/print_icon.png)
Working paper
Publisher:
Centre d’Economie de la Sorbonne
Year:
2011
In this paper, we present a general statistical framework within which we can draw a new interpretation of the Laakso-Taagepera ef-fective number of parties fragmentation index. With the particular method of sampling with probability proportional to the party sizes, we show that the Laakso-Taagepera e ective number of parties is the inverse of the size biased version of the traditional expected party size in shares. Further, we provide an axiomatic de nition of the Laakso-Taagepera e ective number of parties.