Coalition Politics in Israel

srael is a parliamentary democracy with a dominant party system I and a strong emphasis on centralized political operations. The Knesset (parliament) and the Cabinet are the major institutions of formal political authority. However, since independence the Cabinet has tended to lead the Knesset. The Cabinet initiates, prepares and directs legislation through the Knesset, determines the Knesset’s agenda, formulates its internal and external policies, and controls the economy, budget, and finance. As long as the Cabinet has the formal backing of a majority in the Knesset, it is virtually in absolute control of the nation. The Cabinet can secure its authority, however, only if it maintains the support of the Knesset majority, and because the Israeli electorate has consistently refused to provide one party with an absolute majority in the Knesset, coalition governments have had to be formed. At the writing of this paper, seven Knessets had been elected and seventeen governing coalitions had been formed. The coalitions have varied in size and in composition. Thus, whereas the size of the smallest coalition was 64 hlembers of the Knesset distributed among three parties, the size of the largest coalition was 11 I and included seven political parties. The payoffs for coalition partners have also varied in scope and in kind. Some portfolios are transferred from one coalition partner to another, and the number of Cabinet posts belonging to a party fluctuates. For example, in the First Government, the Mapai Party had seven posts in the Cabinet, a payoff which grew to twelve by the Fifteenth Cabinet.