It is evident that the diversity of the New Zealand Parliament has increased both socially and politically since the introduction of the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system in 1996. The first part of this essay will focus on the mechanisms by which RPM significantly improved political diversity in different areas. I will explain this by looking at the main differences between MMP and its predecessor, First Past the Post (FPP). The second part of this essay will explore the reasons why social diversity and the representation of minorities in Parliament have improved thanks to MMP, referring to the interesting effect of “macrocontagion”. Before 1996, elections in New Zealand were held under the Majority Majority (or FPP) system. ) system. In this electoral system, the candidate with the highest percentage of votes wins the seat in that electorate and the remaining votes for all other candidates are simply discarded. Thus, supporters of small parties gradually lost all motivation to vote for the candidates of these parties, in order to avoid voting “wasted votes”. Therefore, the FPP ultimately contributed to the formation of a “bipartisan” government with very limited political diversity. The MMP, however, opens a new era of active participation of small parties in Parliament. The introduction of crucial and decisive party voting under MMP means that parliamentary seats are now allocated in proportion to the percentage of party votes each party receives, ensuring that every vote is taken into account in determining the composition of Parliament. As a result, support for small parties suddenly increased. This is simply because voters now have the power to bring these parties into Parliament by voting directly with the parties. With enough party v...... middle of paper ......al List of electoral parties. These actions will inevitably put pressure on major parties, who will therefore generally be forced to do the same in order to maintain the support of female and minority voters. Indeed, more women and candidates from minorities are named on the lists of major parties and are then elected to parliament15, hence the achievement of social diversity within the framework of the MMP. In conclusion, the MMP has completely redefined the government formation process. With the flourishing of small parties, a wide range of political opinions are frequently expressed in Parliament. By forcing parties to compete for every vote, MMP also ended the history of underrepresentation of women, ethnic minorities and special interest groups. It is fair to say that an era marked by parliamentary social and political diversity has begun.