> Some countries, such as Israel, have purely party based parliamentary systems with no geographic representation ... Some nations have fine-grained representation of ideas but course-grained representation of land
Before putting this on a pedestal, it's worth noting that Israel:
1. Has smaller some power blocs which have non-proportional power at the parliament due to being the "swing vote".
2. Had other smaller political parties completely eliminated (voter desertion) due to ineffectiveness.
3. Had 4 elections in 2 years due to inability to form a ruling government with more than 50% of the parliament approval.
4. Had a government average run-time of 2.5 years since 1999 due to "no confidence" votes that force re-election.
Less than ideal. The American system, with its flaws, significantly more stable.
The Netherland has pretty much the same system as Israel, there is slight geographic representation but nationwide party votes do dictate the composition of parliament.
All the Nordic countries also use a proportional system with multi-member districts and measures to make the overall party representation in parliament align with their national share of the votes.
Maybe the problems with Israel are just problems with Israel rather than their particular system of voting.
From what I understand, Netherland has practically the same system as Israel. There's no regional representation at all, you vote on the party, and although you do vote on a specific candidate from that party, seats are assigned in the order of the list that the party determined, unless a candidate receives enough individual votes to reach the threshold for a seat on their own (which is rare for anyone not on the #1 or #2 spot for their party).
As a result, Dutch parliament currently has 16 parties, and the senate 13. And although governments do fall, and sometimes have trouble forming a new government, the system is very stable. Every government is a coalition, a compromise between enough parties to hold 50%+1 seat in parliament, and that means you generally see the same big parties in government. Sometimes one of the big parties loses popularity and thus seats, and doesn't govern. Other, possibly fairly new, parties can take their place. Parties that most other parties think are terrible (like the racist parties) still won't be able to form a government even if they're large, because nobody wants to work with them.
Before putting this on a pedestal, it's worth noting that Israel:
Less than ideal. The American system, with its flaws, significantly more stable.