Electoral Studies, Vol. 16, p. 441 (1997) has an article about direct presidential elections. In 91 of 170 countries, presidents are directly elected. 61 of the 91 have majority - runoff methods (if no majority winner on first ballot, then top 2 go on a second ballot). The majority- runoff method has the major defect of wiping out potential compromise candidates. I note again that any one ballot reform method that permits a winner who does not get majority approval has very little chance of being adopted.
