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The best explanation I ever read of this was in Paul Frere's classic book "Sportscar and Competition Driving", which is a must-read for anyone interested in how vehicles handle. The full explanation is far too detailed to go into here, but suffice to say that RWD will usually produce eventual oversteer (but not necessarily, depending on the way you drive and whether your car has enough power to break rear traction), FWD will nearly always produce understeer, and 4WD usually gives neutral or slight understeer tendency. Having said that, I've driven MX5s and Ginetta G15s (rear ENGINED, as well as RWD!) which I've had understeering through corners by going in too fast and not getting enough power down early - it's the nature of physics and the way a car turns into a corner that the front wheels will always push a little, giving initial understeer. I've also seen FWD Golf GTis on opposite lock as the mass of the rear end eventually breaks away under extreme provocation - it depends on how you drive and how you have your car set up, as well as on which wheels are driving.
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