A systemic problem: Many of Israel's troubles stem from its political system...........

[sabbat hunter]

A systemic problem:Many of Israel's troubles stem from its political system. But can politicians fix it?

THE new wing of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, is an impressive attempt to project the authority of the state together with the openness of democracy. Outside the committee rooms, brushed steel and blond wood grace wide, curving public foyers that look out on the gardens through a three-storey wall of floor-to-ceiling glass. Here, Menahem Ben-Sasson and his colleagues on the constitution, law and justice committee are trying to weld all of Israeli society into a seamless whole.......



All this has helped to spread the belief that a proper constitution and a new electoral system could solve Israel's woes. In an attempt to speed things along, the Knesset constitution committee is also holding separate talks on electoral reform.

They are not going well either. Several previous attempts have been blocked, usually by religious parties that feared losing the influence of their swing vote. The one reform that was passed, in 1996, proved a disaster. It aimed to increase stability by separating the ballots for prime minister and Knesset, but lots of people split their vote, causing even more fragmentation than before. It was reversed five years later.

This time the three Arab parties, who between them muster 11 of the 120 Knesset seats (and are ideologically poles apart), want to block an increase to the threshold for representation in parliament, because that would force them either to merge or accept that they would get no seats at all. So far Mr Ben-Sasson has managed to raise the threshold of votes needed from 2% to 2.5%. Shas, the rightist religious party of the poor, is also against the change, which would give it less clout.
The animals building the zoo

Even those who favour change hotly debate what kind would work best. Besides a presidential or semi-presidential system, proposals include increasing the threshold to exclude all the small parties; expanding the Knesset, which is not big enough to be an effective check on the executive; and electing some or all of the Knesset members directly by constituency instead of by party list, to make them more answerable to their voters. A simple and useful change, says Mr Grinstein, would be for the biggest elected party always to be asked to form a government, rather than having to cobble together a coalition with a majority first. This would encourage parties to try to attract voters rather than other parties.

http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10909941&CFID=1716234&CFTOKEN=8528


I truly hope that these election reforms take hold within Israel, as it will bring stability to that nation and most likely make it easier to bring peace between Israel and the development of a Palestine.

[Fredda Weinberg]

1. And I hope they don't. We could have done worse ... look @ the US n/t

[sabbat hunter]

4. the current system

gives too much power to the small religious and right wing parties.

[LeftishBrit]

2. Interesting point...

I had always been strongly in favour of pure Proportional Representation (having seen the distortions that pure first-past-the-post causes in British politics); but my views were greatly modified once I saw how it affects Israeli politics. Parties like Shas and other small right-wing parties seem to get very disproportionate power, because of the system.

[sabbat hunter]

3. proportional representation

is good in theory. But in Israel you only need 2% to get a seat in the Knesset. Even if that was raised to 5% It would make things much better.