home > by publication type > backgrounders > Israel’s Political System
Email
| Authors: | Eben Kaplan Caroline Friedman |
|---|
Updated: February 11, 2009
Seats in Israel's legislative assembly, the Knesset, are assigned through a system of nationwide proportional representation: Rather than electing individual candidates, voters cast ballots for an entire party. Any party receiving more than 2 percent of the vote is assigned a proportional number of seats in the 120-member legislature. Prior to the general election, each party holds an internal election to decide on a list of representatives to occupy any seats the party should win. If, for instance, a party wins ten seats, the first ten names on the slate will become members of the new Knesset. Each Knesset is expected to serve a four-year term. However, if a majority of the representatives agree, they may elect to dissolve the body and hold early elections. The legislature's tenure may also be prolonged beyond four years, though this requires a "special majority" of eighty votes. The Knesset elects the prime minister, and also holds the power to remove the president. New laws require a simple majority vote.
The prime minister is elected by the Knesset. A prime-ministerial candidate must be a member of the Knesset and needs a simply majority of votes to be confirmed. Prime ministers are expected to serve four-year terms, though these may be shortened by a vote of no confidence in the Knesset. Such votes name a replacement candidate, who is given the opportunity to form his or her own government.
To form a new government, a prospective prime minister has forty-five days to fill cabinet positions and win Knesset approval. Since no single party has ever won a majority of the seats in the Knesset, this requires forming a coalition with other parties in order to win majority approval. After parliamentary elections, the president invites one of the party leaders to form a government. The president does not have to extend this invitation to the party that controls the most seats in the Knesset, rather, the invitation goes to the party the president believes is most capable of forming a coalition. In forming a coalition, a party leader must offer some cabinet positions to members of the smaller coalition partners, as smaller parties often represent the additional votes needed to pass legislation. These smaller parties tend to use this influence to further their political agendas.
If a replacement candidate is unsuccessful at forming a new government, the Knesset is dissolved and new elections are held.
Because forming a coalition involves smaller parties, it often means that groups at the periphery of Israeli politics acquire disproportionate influence. For this reason, some experts, including CFR Senior Fellow Steven A. Cook, suggest that Israel needs to reform its electoral system by raising the threshold for a party to gain representation in the Knesset. Currently, a party only needs to obtain 2 percent of the vote. This percentage is relatively very low (Turkey's threshold, for instance, is 10 percent). Yet prime ministers must cobble together coalitions that number sixty seats, making them vulnerable to the demands of fringe groups. This can lead to policy stalemate and a majority beholden to much smaller political movements. Significant concessions, such as cabinet appointments or budgetary appropriations, are sometimes made to secure coalition support of policies. This creates a system where small, perhaps extreme, parties wield a disproportionate amount of influence.
Israel's major parties are Kadima, Likud, Yisrael Beytenu, and Labor. Eight other parties are also represented in the legislature.
The largest parties are:
When Tzipi Livni assumed leadership of Kadima in late 2008, she proved unable to form a coalition. As a result, the next national election, which was due to take place in 2010, was held in February 2009. Livni's Kadima and Netanyahu's Likud Party won nearly the same number of seats, raising questions of who would lead the next ruling coalition.
Shas and Yisrael Beytenu could play the role of kingmaker. Both aligned with the Kadima-Labor coalition in 2006, but when Livni assumed her party's leadership in 2008, Shas made new demands for increased social welfare and the territorial preservation of Jerusalem. Livni rejected the deal, saying "I'm not willing to be blackmailed, either diplomatically or in terms of the budget, and therefore, I will go to elections." With Likud, Yisrael Beytenu, Shas, and and other nationalist parties winning a total of sixty-five seats in those elections, Livni's Kadima party could find itself on the outside of the next ruling coalition.
Netanyahu says he will refuse to negotiate on Jerusalem or the right of return for Palestinian refugees. He has also played up the threat posed by Iran and suggested that the threats posed by Hezbollah and Hamas would be reduced were the Iranian regime "neutralized." The candidates sparred mostly over the necessity for territorial concession: Livni believes territorial sacrifices might be necessary to ensure peace; Netanyahu refuses to entertain the idea of evacuating any more settlements or withdrawing from the West Bank. However, Netanyahu begrudgingly followed parts of the Oslo Accords when he was prime minister in the late 1990s by pulling Israeli forces out of Hebron and signing the Wye River Memorandum with then Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat.
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1.212.434.9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
Complete list of CFR Books
The report of this bipartisan Task Force of distinguished leaders and experts represents a strong consensus on the importance of repairing America's immigration policy. It makes the case that maintaining America's political and economic leadership depends on attracting talented and hard-working immigrants, and on securing the country's borders in a smart, effective, and humane way.
This report finds that nuclear weapons will remain a fundamental element of U.S. national security in the near term, and makes recommendations on how to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. deterrent nuclear force, prevent nuclear terrorism, and strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR
Complete list of Task Force reports
Identifying international threats and acting on them may be the most difficult job for U.S. policymakers. This report
provides an actionable road map for managing international threats before they erupt into crises and makes a strong case that preventive action is not a luxury but a necessity.
For more than a decade, the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as Asian countries organize themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. In this report, the authors review the relationship between pan-Asian and trans-Pacific institutions and suggest policy guidelines for a new U.S. approach to this new Asian landscape.
Complete list of Council Special Reports
To request permission to reprint or reuse CFR material, please fill out this permissions request form (PDF), referring to the instructions on page 1.
Copyright 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.