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Nov 6, 2022

the point of the threshold

There is a lot of attention being paid to the minimum threshold right now. Now because of Meretz and Balad not reaching the bar and getting disqualified, there is a lot of chatter after the elections, but usually it comes in advance of the elections as they all worry about which parties are at risk and who needs a boost - should it be so high? should it be lowered?.

I was always in favor of raising the threshold to make bigger parties and more stability (which we havent actually seen help). I am theoretically even in favor of raising it higher. I would really like a two large party system with all the varying sectors finding their place within the bigger parties, and the two big parties run against each other. Essentially that is basically what Netanyahu turned the Israeli parties into anyway when he pushed in the direction of the importance of the bloc several years ago over the importance of the individual parties. if the small parties are all going to be loyal to the bigger parties anyway and not negotiate independently and separately, why have separate smaller parties at all - just merge the "right" parties into Likud and merge the "Left" parties into Yesh Atid or Labor or whatever? Netanyahu created this reality without the benefit after the elections because he still has to negotiate with separate parties after the fact that they all ran together.

I have been rethinking it in recent elections and no longer see the point. not because it is a bad idea, it isn't, but because our politicians are short-sighted and create rules to increase stability while leaving in big enough loopholes that make the changes pointless. As above, they raised the threshold but continue the style of horse trading to form a government, leaving the government at the will of smaller (but slightly bigger than they used to be) parties.

The real point that makes the threshold pointless is that all the parties that are at risk, if they have any brains in their head (which clearly Meretz/Labor and Balad did not this time around) would, and do, merge just for the purpose of elections and then split and operate as separate parties throughout their term in Knesset.

With such a simple workaround, what is the point of the minimum threshold being raised? We might as well not bother and let each party run independently as they would prefer to anyway.






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2 comments:

  1. What we need is a higher threshold, but preferential voting (or "Single Transferable Vote"), similar to what they have in Australia.

    A single transferable vote means that you rank your top preferences in order. If your first choice does not pass the threshold, the vote is automatically transferred to your second (or third or forth) preference.

    This means that you can vote for whichever party you align with politically without worrying about wasting your vote if they do not pass the threshold.
    It also normally strengthens the more moderate central parties, as they will be the second or third choice for voters who select extremist parties as their first choice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Left oriented British Columbia held a referendum a year or two ago with three choices including alternative preferential voting and stacked in favor - e.g. extending it a further week for the late voting youth - and still the public chose to stick with previous first past the post system

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