Our lives would be very different if there were a direct link between voters and those they elect. Yet, despite the approaching elections, I have so far heard no candidates address the issue that is vital to every voter, both right and left, Jewish and Arab, secular and Orthodox: how to ensure that members of Knesset actually represent us, the people who send them to parliament, and that they focus on what matters to us, not only on their own political future.
To illustrate the disconnect, let me ask: Who knows who was fifth on the list you voted for in the last election? No? What about the third? Even second? I don’t know either. We vote for the person at the top of the list, based on their personality and promises.
MKs also understand this, which is why they work to please the leader or to find favor with a mechanism, such as a party central committee and vote brokers, and essentially ignore us. How does this happen? Look to our system – there are few other democracies with an electoral system like Israel’s, with no personal or regional component, only closed party lists.
There are several types of democracy. There are presidential democracies, such as the United States, where elections for the presidency and for Congress are separate. There are semi-presidential systems, like in France, where the president is elected directly and appoints a prime minister, who must then command the confidence of parliament. Israel belongs to the large group of parliamentary democracies, in which the composition of the government is determined by election results. Within this group, however, there are different electoral methods.
In many parliamentary democracies, like Britain, legislators are elected in constituencies. They belong to a party, but it is the voters in their district who decide whether they will continue to sit on the green leather benches in Westminster. As a result, most of their effort is not invested in personal advancement but in the needs of their constituents – a voter who regularly spends hours stuck in traffic is not impressed that their representative appeared on a prestigious talk show and discussed matters unconnected to the district.
Some countries, such as Germany, have a mixed system. Voters cast two ballots, not necessarily for the same party: one for a local representative and one for a national list representing an ideology. In my view, this is the preferred method, as it balances day-to-day needs with a vision for the country’s future.
Few parlimentery democracies like Israel
There are very few parliamentary democracies like Israel, with a single nationwide constituency. The advantage is that the Knesset’s composition reflects the public’s vote with great precision (subject to the electoral threshold and surplus-vote agreements). The disadvantage is that voters have no way to reward a legislator who worked on their behalf or to punish one who did not. As a result, MKs focus on those who can secure their political future, rather than on us, the voters.
A possible solution can be found in the Netherlands. Like Israel, it has a single nationwide constituency and party-determined lists. But on the ballot, voters see not only the parties but also the lists of candidates. When voting, it is possible to indicate preferred candidates and move them up the list, thus improving their standing within the party.
A politician who wants to advance must take into account not only party bosses, as is the case in Israel, but also ordinary voters.
Browse the newspapers, and you will see how MKs compete for headlines through extreme statements or bizarre legislative proposals, instead of investing effort in improving citizens’ lives.
Think of MKs who defected from their parties. Would they have done so if they had been required to win voters’ direct trust again? This refers not only to Idit Silman and Amichai Chikli, who were voted in on the Yamina list but, in 2022, transferred their loyalty to Likud and brought down the “change government.” Among other examples, 30 years ago, Gonen Segev and Alex Goldfarb were elected on the right-wing Tzomet list, took prestigious appointments, and supported the Oslo Accords.
I would gladly give my vote to a party that commits to ensuring that democracy in Israel will amount to more than a slip of paper in a ballot box but rather to a real, continuous relationship between voters and their representatives. Which parties will rise to the challenge?
The writer was Israel’s first ambassador to the Baltic states after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, ambassador to South Africa, and congressional liaison officer at the embassy in Washington. She is a graduate of Israel’s National Defense College.