Adrift in a Sea of Coalitions : Israel’s system of government needs to evolve if it is to cope

Israel’s late coalition government experienced many failures. Among the greatest was its inability to deal with the compelling need for electoral reform. The consequences are again wearisomely apparent as inconclusive maneuvering continues over who will lead and who will take part in the next government.

To achieve a parliamentary majority, either Labor or Likud (the two major political blocs) needs considerable support from among the other 13 marginal parties represented in the Knesset. That requires delicate negotiations and balancing of the competing demands of one special interest group against another. It’s a tedious and not always dignified process. For a democracy facing urgent challenges that call for clear and prompt decisions, it can be dangerous as well.

Since 1988, Labor and Likud between them have controlled 79 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, more than enough to legislate changes to eliminate the disproportionate influence so long enjoyed by fringe parties. No party in Israel has ever won an electoral majority at the polls. Coalitions have thus always been the rule. Until the 1984 shotgun marriage of Labor and Likud, those coalitions included one or more of the religious parties. In a largely secular society, that participation has given the religious minority an extraordinary claim on patronage and special privileges.

But the problem with Israel’s politics isn’t parochial, it’s systemic. The multiplicity of parties that emerged with the birth of the state reflected Israel’s cultural heterogeneity and the Zionist movement’s historic divisions. Get three Israelis together in a room, the old joke goes, and they will soon form four political parties. Some say the continuance of the multiparty system indicates the freewheeling vibrancy of Israeli politics. From a larger perspective, it’s arguably an indication of an outmoded political immaturity, of a refusal to compromise to obtain more efficient and, yes, more truly democratic government. That’s why public opinion in Israel is increasingly supporting the call for electoral reform.

Reform, though, is for the future. Labor and Likud each hope to lead the next government. Each, though, now seems unable to command more than a non-majority 60 votes in the Knesset.

What should come next? The best course--and not for reasons of electoral reform alone--is to forget about coalition-building and move on to new elections, in hope of breaking a crippling political deadlock. Granted, the next election could again prove inconclusive. But at least it would give Israelis a chance to try to end the policy paralysis of recent years. Who knows: It could even bring closer the time when an anachronistic electoral system can be abandoned.