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Dec 26, 2024

changing the electoral system

Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology of Israel Gila Gamliel said today in an interview that the electoral system in Israel is problematic in that it gives exaggerated power to small parties and we must change the electoral system and we should do it now. 

Gamliel said to either make regional representatives or to raise the minimum electoral threshold dramatically in a way that would only allow for a small number of large parties. Today, she said, there is one small party with the Foreign Ministry, and another small party with the Finance Ministry.  This is not proportional.

Minister Gamliel is right, in my opinion. She only gave two examples but many important and significant ministries are controlled by small parties. Every time an election is held, the members of the largest party forming the coalition complain that they are left with crumbs while the small parties who are needed to form the coalition take the bulk of the powerful positions, so this isnt unique to this government. 

In the past we have had very low thresholds and higher thresholds. Right now it is high, though Gamliel wants to make it higher. The arguments all have some logic to them in both directions, but the system allows for loopholes to get around the attempt to set limitations. When the threshold is low it allows for a lot of small parties and each one is perhaps less powerful but each needs to be paid off more because each might only bring one or two mandates. When the threshold is high, the parties make technical blocks (like UTJ is, like Smotritch and Ben Gvir did) and often split after the elections, the coalition requires fewer parties but once the government is formed those technical blocks often split making more smaller parties again with exaggerated power.

I do agree the small parties should be absorbed into the large parties, and there should be some form of direct representation so politicians are accountable to the electorate, which as of right now they are not. Absorbing the small parties into the large parties does not mean nobody will take care of the issues those small parties were concerned with - it means the large parties, once accountability is included, will also be concerned for those issues which right now they often give low priority to.

Can it be done?

I dont know. I have found that the only thing you can count on politicians for is to make the changes they think will benefit themselves rather than the system, so I am skeptical, but maybe.




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2 comments:

  1. The last time they reformed the system by raising the threshold, it made things worse.
    Someone needs to do the math - look at the last 4 elections and run the results with a 10% or 15% threshold and see what happens.
    Or make it a requirement for a party to present 120 qualified candidates and a comprehensive platform to eliminate small, single issue parties.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. and technical blocks are not allowed to split after the election

      Delete

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