Life And Times - Government & Politics : Isreal

Israel’s government is a parliamentary democracy, the only one in the Middle East. Though there is no written constitution, a series of Acts of Parliament (1958) serves as the framework for legislation. Presently, Israelis do not vote for a candidate in the general election; instead they vote for a one of more than 20 political parties. The percentage of the popular vote received by a given party is then converted into a proportion of the 120 seats of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. The leader of the party with the majority of representatives becomes prime minister.

But it’s not that simple. Never in Israeli history has a party achieved a majority in a neral eiectjon, which means that the parties must then scramble to form a coali-rion They usually squabble and scream, cajole and concede for several weeks until eements aJ.e reached with smaller parties. Once enough parties have banded together to form a majority, the game ends and a prime minister is named. Under this election system the smallest parties have disproportionate clout in the balance of power. These parties exact concessions, as the largest party may need the two or three seats a minor party can provide to achieve the necessary coalition majority.