The direct elections of prime minister as an indicator of the atypical parliamentary system of government in the State of Israel (1996–2003).
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31558/2519-2949.2018.4.6Keywords:
system of government, parliamentarism, atypical parliamentarism, electoral reform, institution of the direct elections of the prime minister, fractionalization of the party system, State of IsraelAbstract
Political practice shows that there (within the framework of a republican form of government) are parliamentary systems of government, which formally and/or actually differ from traditional or typical parliamentary systems of government. At the same time, extremely different factors of political process and inter-institutional relations, which are the conditions for defining different types of systems of government, can be indicators for distinguishing typical and atypical parliamentary systems of government. In this cut, the purpose of the article is to determine the factors and consequences of 1992 electoral reform and to find out whether the peculiarities of the institution of direct elections of prime minister can predetermine the atypicality of parliamentary system of government in the State of Israel in 1996–2003. This purpose was solved in the situation when new institutionalism and its types/paradigms were chosen as a theoretical and methodological basis of the research.
The author analyzed the peculiarities of 1992 electoral reform and found out that the main factors that had determined its necessity were the following prerequisites: the choice and composition of government were practically out of the attention of voters; popular disaffection with established parties started its rising and the overall perception of democracy started its tarnishing; new and splinter parties were encouraged to be formed thereby constantly increasing fragmentation and polarization of party system; small parties had disproportionate political power; multiparty governments made the process of decisionmaking more difficult (in particular, with veto power granted to most parties in the coalition on a variety of issues); government crises became more and more frequent immobilizing cabinets for long periods of time.
The researcher also determined the consequences of 1992 electoral reform. According to Rae’s fractionalization index and the results of 1996 and 1999 elections, the fractionalization of party system increased. That is why a party or bloc that nominated a candidate for a prime minister received much lower support than a candidate himself. This meant that a significant part of electorate shared its choice on parliamentary elections and direct elections of prime minister, voting for a candidate for a prime minister from one party and given votes to Knesset for another party. Therefore, it is proved that the features of the institution of direct elections of prime minister predetermined the atypicality of parliamentary system of government in the State of Israel in 1996–2003.
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