The path towards democracy has been strongly guided by electoral systems. These systems provide governments with the ability to represent the will of their citizens. It provides the platform of legitimacy to the government and in most cases ensures freedom and order within a country. This essay will discuss the main differences between a majoritarian electoral system and a proportional electoral system. Furthermore, it will demonstrate that the use of a majoritarian electoral system in a country would result in a more accountable and representative government. We will then proceed to establish whether South Africa should adopt the majoritarian electoral system rather than the proportional one, taking into account accountability, social representation and stability. In a democratically elected government, like South Africa's, the electoral system determines who will hold power. political power within a country. Therefore, the significance of a fair and representative election cannot be exaggerated or understated. For Norris (1997), electoral systems are considered mechanisms determined through voters' preferences, since seats are translated in the process of electing politicians into political power. That is, these systems vary in dimensions, including constituency size, voter electoral structures, assembly size, and open/closed list systems. Majority and proportional representation systems are the two most common electoral systems that decide how votes are translated into seats. The majoritarian electoral system could be divided into plurality or absolute majority (Norris, 1997: 299). Plurality aims to create an artificial majority by exaggerating the share of seats for the leading party until an effective working majority is achieved for the government... middle of paper... and the inclusiveness that the proportional system brings to the South African La society embodies the liberation of equality in South Africa, which is why it will be very difficult for the South African government to abandon the proportional system in favor of the majoritarian system. Works Cited Blais, A. 1991. The Debate over Electoral Systems. London: Sage Publications.Grofman, B. & Lijphart, A. 2002. The evolution of electoral and party systems in the Nordic countries. USA: Agathon Press.Heywood, A. 2002. Politics. New York: Macmillan.Norris, P. 1997. Choice of electoral systems: proportional, majoritarian and mixed systems. International review of political science. 18(3): 297-312.Sharman, C. 1980. Partisanship and electoral engineering: proportional representation and the Australian Senate. Seattle: Western Political Science Association Annual Meeting.