The country of Israel operates under a parliamentary system of government. In a parliamentary system, if no political party obtains the majority of seats in the legislature, the parties play against each other until some combination of those that have enough seats together can form a majority to form a government. and appoint a prime minister. If they come before the next election, one or more parties will be pulled out of this coalition and will fail with a majority, this typically leads to early elections before the process has to start.
Sometimes in a parliamentary system, even when one party has a majority of seats by itself, it will form a coalition with one or all of the other parties. Typically, this type of “government of national unity” occurs in times of war or when there is a desire for greater legitimacy that the government acts for the entire people and not just the party that decides for it.
Coalition governments are more likely in a country with multiple political parties and a proportional representation electoral system. (Proportional representation means that seats are allocated according to the highest percentage of votes. So in a legislature of 100, if a minority received only 5% of the vote, they would still get five seats. In a winner-take-all electoral system such as in United, local elections would be separate in each of the 100 districts and it is unlikely that a minority party would win a plurality of votes in any of them, so it leaving with no seats.) When parliamentary seats are widely distributed like this in several parties, it is more difficult to get each party. greater in itself.
When the election in no party obtains a majority of the seats, the smaller parties may be in a strong position of pressure as breakers. Imagine, for example, if the United States used such a system, and the Republicans held about 45% of the seats, the Democrats about 45% of the seats were occupied, and the Space Party, which wanted to send a firm mission to Mars, held about 10% of the seats. Even the Republicans, the Democrats, and most or all of the 90% of the people who did not vote for the Space Party all thought that the Mars mission it was a bad idea, the accident would happen anyway. Even with only 10% of the seats, the Space Party would be in a position to be offered to the two major parties that agreed with the Mars mission, enter into a coalition with them and support their main agenda.
Israel’s parliamentary system illustrates many of the above points.
The Israeli parliament, called the Knesset, is a 120-member unicameral body elected for four years according to the system of proportional representation of white parties. Voters do not vote for individual candidates but for parties, with party candidates listed in order of priority. So, for example, if the 40th candidate was on the list of the Likud Party, then he will only get a seat in the Knesset if the Likud can get enough votes to get at least a third of the seats.
Not only are coalition governments possible in Israel, but many are automatic. Since the first Knesset in 1948, only for a short time in 1968 and 1969 was the majority per se without the need to form a coalition. And in fact it also comes with an asterisk, because the “Alignment” party was a temporary party when Labor and Map were associated with each other and ran as a single party. Thus, the coalition was generally formed before the election rather than after.
Predictable instability in Israeli governments due to coalitions formed. Although theoretically there are elections every four years in Israel, in reality the average government lasted about two years before new elections were held when its coalition dissolved.
On the other hand, the electoral process in the United States Postal Service makes it impossible for anyone to be independent. or any party other than the Republicans or the Democrats to always leave the ground (for example, “waste” your vote if you vote for Ralph Nader), the Israeli system encourages smaller parties, from the “Human Rights in the Family Party.” to “Holocaust Survivors and the Ale Yarok Alumni Party .
An important consequence of the pressures provided to the smaller parts of the system was the disparate power of the Religious Right in Israel. Since no such party has ever come close to a majority in the Knesset per se, like the Space Party, they have often found themselves in the unenviable parts of ties, where their cooperation is one of the major parties, even one with. with whom those who have power have little or nothing in common. In this way they were able to advance in various ways, such as disputes over occupied territories, which otherwise could not have happened.
Therefore, Israel’s use of a parliamentary system based on proportional representation has influenced governments and their policies, which in turn has profoundly affected the history of Israel, the Middle East, and indeed the world.
