On the basis of an examination of the results of parliamentary elections in Slovakia and Macedonia from 1990 to 2002, this paper juxtaposes the assertions of advocates of consensual and majoritarian democracy with the actual parliamentary representation of minorities in each country. Attending on the one hand to the parliamentary representation of each country's largest minority population, and, on the other hand, to the parliamentary representation of Roms, the paper also makes note of considerations underlying innovations in the Slovak and Macedonian electoral systems since the first post-communist elections. It concludes that the effects of electoral system design on minority representation are neither negligible nor decisive.