Blog 7: Israel

Brad Carter

Political Science 150

Professor Hawkins

Blog 7

The state of Israel is a state marked by conflict. Jacob himself was the focal point of much anger and contention when he took Esau’s birth right. Today, the streets of Israel are still battlegrounds between Palestinian and Israeli extremists. However, some of the greatest conflict occurs, not between Jew and Gentile, but between Jew and Jew in the halls of parliament, or Knesset. The ferocity of this battle of words can be attributed to the multipolarity of Israeli politics, which is itself a result of the proportional representation system which forms the basis of its elections. 

Democracy in this Middle Eastern nation is characterized by its strive for fairness, even if not all aspects of the democracy are fair. In order to determine the make up of its single house of parliament, Israel uses a system known as the proportional representation, which divvies out seats based on a parties presence in society. 

This is in direct opposition to the winner-take-all systems found in other countries, including America. According the the works of Maurice Duverger, this system is inherently more fair, because it allows smaller parties to stay competitive without having to merge into one or another parties in a bipolar system, which in turn allows to represent a more specific audience in Knesset. The numbers seem to back up this idea. 

Israel is home to an impressive 34 parties, however only twelve currently hold seats, and of those, five hold more than ten seats. When we calculate the number of effective parties, Israel has effectively 7.4 parties, which is fairly accurate, give 6 parties hold five or more seats, and the remaining six parties hold 3-4 seats each. (Wikipedia)

Additionally, the Israeli system is characterized by a number of features which serve to promote fairness. Israel is not divided into legislative districts, meaning that gerrymandering is impossible, and the nations is one large district. The formula which Israel uses is based of of the D’Hondt method, which does give a slight advantage to the larger parties. Lastly, politicians are elected by close lists, and because of the great number of ineffective parties, we can assume that there is no threshold of limitations. 

All of these features serve to make Israel a better place. The proportional representation system does an excellent job of fostering a multipolar political arena. This, in turn, means that Israelis are able to find parties that better mirror their views. With luck this will allow more people to decide their problems with words rather than force. 

"Israel." INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION. N.p.. Web. 2 Nov 2012. <http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/2155_B.htm>.

"Elections in Israel." Wikipedia. N.p.. Web. 2 Nov 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Israel>.