The Parliamentary System Of Israel

A study of the Knesset based on a series of interviews with members of the Eighth Knesset (1973-77), this book is a revealing picture of the Israeli political system and the individuals who work within it.

Here, Reuven Y. Hazan argues that committees are essential for the efficient dispatch of parliamentary business and shows how several parliaments have recently reformed their committee systems to function more effectively. In particular, he gives an in-depth knowledge and a broader understanding of Israel's committees and how they compare with the committees of other legislatures throughout the world.

An] instructive but challenging volume... Brichta points out that no Israeli government can reach the level of stability and effectiveness sought by Israelis so long as Israeli society remains politically fragmented. Israel Affairs. Avraham Brichta s Political Reform in Israel is a masterly study of the craft and art of politics. More than that, it is a model of true political sociology, which stays away from the temptation to reduce politics to the study of social origins of leaders and followers. Instead, it concentrates on the interplay of social and political cleavages with electoral system, in the best tradition of the classic works by Sartori and Lijphart. The book is an important, instructive and highly readable analysis of political science. In addition to the major contributions it makes to the debate on political reform among scholars and members of the general public. It also demonstrates qualities that are sorely lacking in that kind of debate: insight, caution and political wisdom. From the Foreword by Gabriel Ben-Dor, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center of National Security Studies, Israel. This book analyzes and tests the many reforms proposed and implemented in the electoral nominations, party, parliamentary and local government systems in Israel, and their impact upon the stability, effectiveness, responsiveness and representativeness of the Israeli political system.

Originally published in 1961, this book provides a clear authoritative work of reference, surveying not only constitutional form, but also actual political practice. The author deals in turn with the Knesset, the political parties and the electoral system, Cabinet, Presidents and Judiciary, the basis of citizenship and civil rights, the administrative structure, local government and foreign policy. The book also emphasizes the precarious balance of the new state of Israel in which immigrants exceeded the original population.

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Near East, Near Orient, grade: 1,0, University of Potsdam, language: English, abstract: The Tyranny of the Minority: The effectiveness of policy making in Israel. Introduction to Israel's Political System As a fledgling nation facing a unique set of social challenges and physical threats, the democracy of Israel was created in an incredibly volatile environment. Nonetheless, in certain respects Israeli democracy has shown itself to be remarkably stable-for example, not once in Israel's sixty-five year history have the results of a major election been challenged. In other respects, however, Israeli democracy has presented itself as fundamentally unstable and subject to perpetual inefficiency. This is further exacerbated by the fact that unlike most Western democracies, the state of Israel lacks a formal constitution; instead, Israel has passed a set of Basic Laws intended to fill the gap. One symptom of this perpetually unstable condition is the frequency in which Israel changes the makeup of its governing coalitions-in Israel's brief history of sixty-five years, there have been thirty-one different governments. The question becomes, to what extent is such an erratic democracy able to set policy and govern effectively? In what follows, this question will be analyzed thoroughly, with an emphasis placed on the role that Israel's multiparty political system plays in this process. The political system in Israel is a parliamentary system based strictly on proportional representation. This was a system Israel adopted in the aftermath of the period of the British Mandate in order to accommodate the starkly different social, political and religious groups-and particularly the vast waves of immigrants-that composed its population. In Israel's parliamentary system, a party receives seats in the Knesset in proportion to the number of votes that they received in the legislative electio