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The Israeli Coalition System*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

K. Z. Paltiel
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Extract

ANALYSTS OF THE ISRAELI POLITICAL SYSTEM HAVE COMMONLY attributed the stability of the polity to factors closely associated with the role played by the various Israeli parties in the state's economic and social life, and/or to the existence of a dominant, institutionalized state-building party. The consociational approach ought to help to clarify those factors which have maintained the stability of the coalition system which has governed the state of Israel since its establishment in 1948 and whose roots may be traced back as far as 1933 and even earlier.

The consociational model and the theory of elite accommodation have been elaborated in an effort to explain the maintenance of continuing political stability in what at first glance would appear to be societies deeply divided along social, economic, ethnic, religious and ideological lines. Political stability in fragmented societies from this standpoint rests on the overarching commitment of the political elites to the preservation and maintenance of the system and their readiness to cooperate to this end.

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Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , 01 October 1975 , pp. 397 - 414
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1975

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References

1 On the role of parties in Israel see, in particular, Akzin, Benjamin, ‘The Role of Parties in Israeli Democracy’, Journal of Politics, Volume 17, 11 1955,Google Scholar reprinted in Eisenstadt, S. N., Bar Yosef, Rivkah and Adler, Chaim, eds, Integration and Development in Israel, Praeger‐Pall Mall, New York‐London, 1970, pp. 9–46;Google Scholar Gutmann, Emanuel E., ‘Some Observations on Politics and Parties in Israel’, India Quarterly, Volume XVII, 01‐03 1961, pp. 1–27;Google Scholar Fein, Leonard J., Politics in Politics in Israel, Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1967.Google Scholar

2 For studies of the role of an institutionalized party see Amitai Etzioni, ‘Alternative Ways to Democracy: The Example of Israel’, Political Science Quarterly, Volume 74, June 1959, reprinted in Polsby, Dentler and Smith, eds, Politics and Social Life, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1963, pp. 588–99; and Medding, Peter Y., Mapai in Israel: Political Organization and Government in a New Society, Cambridge University Press, London, 1972.Google Scholar

3 For a useful review of the literature on consociationalism and a valuable collection of articles on elite accommodation in European and non‐European settings, see McRae, Kenneth D., ed., Consociational Democracy; Political Accommodation in Segmented Societies, McClelland and Stewart, Toronto, 1974.Google Scholar

4 Akzin, op. cit., p. 10.

5 Val R. Lorwin, ‘Segmented Pluralism: Ideological Cleavages and Political Cohesion in the Smaller European Democracies’, in McRae op. cit., pp. 33–69.

6 For a detailed study of Arab political activity in Israel, see Landau, Jacob M., The Arabs in Israel: A Political Study, Oxford University Press, London, 1969.Google Scholar

7 The foreign and security policy stances of the various parties are analysed in detail in Brecher, Michael, The Foreign Policy System of Israel: Settings, Images, Process, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1972;Google Scholar in particular pp. 161–82.

8 For an introduction to the literature on Zionist ideologies, the following studies are useful: Hertzberg, Arthur, ed., The Zionist Idea, Harper & Row, New York, 1959;Google Scholar Halpern, Ben, The Idea of the Jewish State, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1961;Google Scholar Segre, V. D., Israel: A Society in Transition, Oxford University Press, London, 1971;;Google Scholar Walter, Laqueur, A History of Zionism, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York, 1972 Google Scholar

9 Paltiel, Khayyam Z., The Progressive Party: A Study of a Small Party in Israel (unpublished Ph.D. thesis) Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1964, pp. 1–41 Google Scholar in particular.

10 The religious issue and the role of organized religion in Israeli politics are discussed in Clement Leslie, S., The Rift in Israel: Religious Authority and Secular Democracy, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1971;Google Scholar and in Gutmann, Emanuel, ‘Religion in Israeli Polities’ in Landau, J. M., ed., Man, State, and Society in the Contemporary Middle East, Praeger, New York, 1972, pp. 122–34.Google Scholar

11 Leslie, op. cit., p.29.

12 The federative aspects of Israel society and politics are suggested and outlined by Fein, op. cit., p. 100 and by Eisenstadt, S. N., Israeli Society, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1967, p. 410.Google Scholar

13 Akzin, op. cit., p. 27.

14 Lorwin, op. cit., pp. 44–5.

15 For a description and evaluation of the Israeli electoral system, see Akzin, Benjamin, ‘The Knesset’, International Social Science Journal, Volume XIII, No. 4, 1961, pp. 567–582.Google Scholar

16 Efforts to change the electoral system in the first 15 years of the state’s existence are reviewed in Paltiel, op. cit., pp. 192–209.

17 On the Israeli civil service, see Dror, Yehezkel, ‘Nine Main Characteristics of Governmental Administration in Israel’, Public Administration in Israel and Abroad 1964 (Israel Institute of Public Administration) Jerusalem, 1965, pp. 6–17;Google Scholar and Caiden, Gerald, Israel’s Administrative Culture, Berkeley, 1970 Google Scholar.

18 Paltiel, op. cit., p. 23off.

19 On the implications of the ideological shifts in Israel, see Eisenstadt, Israeli Society, chapter 10, ‘Culture and Values’, pp. 368–390.

20 Lijphart, Arend, ‘Consociational Democracy’, World Politics, Vol. 21, No. 2, 1969, pp. 207–225,Google Scholar reprinted in McRae, op. cit. pp. 70–89; see in particular p. 88.

21 On the derivation of this notion from Austrian experience, see Lorwin, op. cit., p. 54.

22 See Medding, op. cit., passim.

23 For the origin of the Independent Liberals, see Paltiel, op. cit., passim.

24 Daalder, Hans, ‘On Building Consociational Nations: The Case of the Netherlands and Switzerland’, International Social Science Journal, Vol. 23, No. 3, 1971, pp. 355–70;Google Scholar reprinted in McRae, op. cit., 107–24, see p. 121 in particular.

25 For a related discussion of the point raised here, see Eisenstadt, Israeli Society, pp. 360–7.

26 For details as to Cabinet and Knesset procedure, see Dror, Yehezkel and Gutmann, Emanuel, The Government of Israel: A Collection of Readings. (Hebrew), 2nd provisional edition, Kaplan School of Economics and Social Sciences, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1962. pp. 131–273;Google Scholar and Zidon, Asher, Beth HaNivcharim (Hebrew), (The Knesset ‐ Israel’s Parliament) 4th edition, Achiasaf, Jerusalem, 1966 Google Scholar.

27 Gutmann, in Landau, op. cit., pp. 127–9.

28 Paltiel, op. cit., pp. 166–71.

29 Medding, op. cit., p. 306.

30 Ibid., p. 189.

31 Ibid., p. 207.

32 Noel, S.J.R., ‘Consociational Democracy and Canadian Federalism,’Canadian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 4, 1971, pp. 15–18;Google Scholar reprinted in McRae, op. cit., pp. 262–8.

33 McRae, ‘Introduction’, ibid., p. 7ff.