Having just survived the fourth general election in Israel in two years, surely the time has come to take another hard look at an electoral system that seems designed to produce unworkable results. There can be no better proof that what we have here in Israel verges on the farcical, than the repeated pattern of going yet again to the polls, only to end up back where we started.
The system, which was inaugurated in 1949 with only minor amendments since, divides the total votes cast proportionally to any political party which has passed the 3.25% threshold. Thus, if a party has 20% of the vote, it will receive the same percentage of the 120 available seats in the
Knesset. This sounds like a truly democratic system. The only problem is, it virtually guarantees that no one party can win an outright majority enabling it to form a government. Add to this the consequent necessity to put together a coalition from a large number of parties likely to have very little in common, a process which can take months, as one party leader after another attempts to head a government. If none of them succeeds, it will be back to the people for yet another election.
And the people may be sick and tired of the whole process, particularly when the system, as it stands, does not provide them with a member of Knesset who actually represents their area, and to whom they can go with their protest. Members of the Knesset are parliamentarians because they were high enough up on a party list to be voted in, not because they were chosen to represent a constituency or the inhabitants of a particular area of the country. This lack of a direct connection between an MK and the people, is likely to lead to electoral apathy and the decision not to participate in the democratic process by failing to vote.
