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The New Political System of Israel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Abraham Diskin
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Extract

During the 1990s the israeli political system faced a number of major upheavals on both the macro- and the micro-political levels. As a result many of its basic features changed considerably. Presently, it is more difficult to predict future political behaviour in Israel than ever before.

One may point at the only successful no-confidence vote, which took place on 15 March 1990, as an event that symbolically initiated the new era. Yitzhak Shamir, the head of the Likud and the acting prime minister at the time, overcame the crisis, formed a new government, and continued to serve as prime minister. Yitzhak Rabin of the Labour Party took power following the 1992 elections. Shimon Peres of Labour succeeded Rabin as premier following Rabin's assassination in November 1995. Peres lost the 1996 elections to Likud's new leader, Benjamin Netanyahu. In the 1999 elections, Labour returned to power under the leadership of Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 34 , Issue 4 , October 1999 , pp. 498 - 515
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1999

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References

1 A previous version of Basic Law: the Government was accepted in 1968

2 Libai, D., Lynn, U., Rubinstein, A. and Tsiddon, Y., Changing the System of Government in Israel, Proposed Basic Law: The Government, Jerusalem, Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs, 1990 Google Scholar. For a comparative approach see, for instance: Sartori, G., Comparative Constitutional Engineering: An Inquiry into Structures, Incentives and Outcomes, New York, New York University Press, 1994.Google Scholar

3 Diskin, H. and Diskin, A., ‘The Politics of Electoral Reform in Israel’, International Political Science Review, 16 (1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lijphart, A. and Diskin, A., ‘Electoral Reform in Israel: The Basic Options’, working paper presented to the Israel-Diaspora Institute conference, Israel, March 1989 Google Scholar; Hazan, R. Y., ‘Presidential Parliamentarism: Direct Popular Election of the Prime Minister. Israel’s New Electoral and Political System’, Electoral Studies, 15 (1996), pp. 21–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 See, for example: Arian, A., Security Threatened: Surveying Israeli Opinion on Peace and War, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Shamir, M. and Arian, A., ‘Collective Identity and Electoral Competition in Israel’, American Political Science Review, 93: 2 (1999), pp. 265–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Diskin, A., Voters’ Attitudes on the Arab-Israeli Conflict and the 1996 Elections, Jerusalem, The Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations, 1999 Google Scholar; Wolsfeld, G., Media and Political Conflict: News from the Middle East, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997.Google Scholar

5 For a comparative perspective, see for instance: Inglehart, R. and Abramson, P., ‘Economic Security and Value Change’, American Political Science Review, 88 (1993), pp. 336–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 On the importance of this cleavage, see for example: Diskin, A., ‘The Israeli Elections of 1992’, Electoral Studies, 11: 4 (1992), pp. 356–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Diskin, A., ‘Israel’, European Journal of Political Research, 34: 3–4 (1998), pp. 441–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 There is a significant change also in the functioning of individuals within the political parties. See, for instance: Hofnung, M., ‘The Public Purse and the Private Campaign: Political Finance in Israel’, Journal of Law and Society, 23: l (1996), pp. 132–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 Diskin, A., ‘Israel’, European Journal of Political Research, 35 (1999), forthcoming.Google Scholar