Hi all. Today I am going to focus on the Israeli governmental system and not on the actual politicians that sit in it today. I may reference them but this is not the main issue.
I lived in the USA (Michigan) for 27 years before coming to Israel and I didn't realize just how good the US system of government really was until I came here and learned what little I have learned with my fairly good but still limited Hebrew. Here are my problems and what needs to be done.
The election system. They have got to find a way to improve the system of elections. We cannot go on any further with just voting for parties. I will get to the party system later. So we will have more elections. Then we cannot have a day off for every election day. There are a few ways it could be changed. They could make it all electronic. This probably would receive some resistance but they could make all elections online and you would get a password by mail. This might not be the best idea so they could just not give a day off. Everyone would come after work or before work like they do in the states. Sure the lines will be longer but they can have more staff. More booths. The staff can be some of the people that worked during the day. There are other options like making the elections over several days. Just think. The parties have primaries with problems but they get by with no day off.
The next issue is the public initiatives. We have none. You cannot file a petition and do anything with it. Yes the politicians might listen if they choose but there is not mandate. There needs to be a way for the public to raise bills and laws for vote with a petition like they do in most US states. You get a certain number of signatures and it goes to vote in the next election. now we just got through with the election so now you know why it's important for the system to be more efficient. This will make the government more for the people.
Now some avid observers may have noticed that in the United States Federal government there are no public initiatives. Now I have a few theories why this is the case. It could be that some issues must be handled by politicians and also that there are 50 states and one cannot be sure that all will be represented in the petition or vote. Of course it could just be a big conspiracy.
Whatever the reason, they have something we don't. A real representative democracy. This is the biggest problem in Israel. This must change. Let me explain. In Israel you have probably 5 major parties. Now you might think this is better than the USA because they really only have 2 that matter. However there is no connection between the party representatives and the voters. For those that don't know when you vote, you just vote for a party. The parties all have a list. When the votes are tallied, they allocate the votes to the parties on a percentage basis. There are 120 reps so if a party gets 25% of the vote then they will get 30 reps in the next Knesset. There is a % threshold which I believe is 2% and any party that gets less than that % will have it's votes discarded which often causes even less people to vote for them.
This is a very flawed system. Let's say I voted for Likud which I didn't but this is the central issue. Now if the party doesn't act as I wished they would have I really have nowhere to turn. I could vote for another party but really there are no other parties like Likud. They are the secular right wing party. Let's say Aylon voted to release prisoners which he did. To whom is he accountable. No one. There are primaries but they really don't fix the issue. You see when the next primaries come around they will just be voted in again because they will get on the list.
Before I give my proposal I would like to add one more problem that is part of the proposal. You see the Prime Minister has too much power. He votes, and he gives minister appointments who are also cabinet members. This is a problem because then there is a big vote on an important issue that the PM really wants to see passed, he will threaten to strip the minister from his post. This puts the PM in a VERY VERY powerful position.
My proposal is this. 120 Knesset members is too many. If you add the house and the senate together you get 535 seats. So there is one seat for every ~560,000 residents. On the other hand there is one Knesset member for every ~58,000 Israelis. That's almost 10 fold. So we can get by with 20 less. The Knesset will be 100 members. The country will be divided into 100 districts and when we vote we will not vote for a party. We will vote for who we want to represent our district plus the PM. If the rep doesn't do as he promised his phone will ring and when elections come he will be voted out. In some cases large cities will have multiple districts but that's ok. So what about the ministers? Well the PM who will NOT be in the Knesset and will NOT have a vote. This is important so the PM cannot pressure governments to vote as he likes. So the true democratic process can take place.
Speaking of the true democratic process, we should just get rid this idea of forming and dissolving governments. Everyone that was voted in is part of the government. There is no reason to change anything. Anyways if you have districts the representatives will stabilize and probably the same ones will be there each time.
I know this would basically be the American system but there are other implementations of it and it works. I will tell you the downfall is efficiency. The Israeli government would move a lot slower but I have a solution for that and it's really already in place in the US. If you think about it, the only time it's really urgent is during war time. Well the President or PM is the commander in chief. He runs the military. This is a lot of power but then again the PM also would have no power to make the Knesset vote one way or another. Other things would take time but that's ok. Have you ever went into a store by yourself and bought something you regretted? Of course but if you went into the store with 99 of your closest friends and family you probably would make a lot less regrettable purchases. Sure it would take more time but when we are talking about making decisions that affect the Jewish State then it's worth that time. Maybe not so much on your next purchase.
The only reason I can see that someone would be against this would be if they don't trust the people. Maybe you are a leftist and you are afraid the public will vote right or maybe you are on the right and you are afraid of the opposite. Regardless you are missing the point. Isn't a democracy supposed to represent it's voters? With my plan the level of corruption will be greatly reduced and we will have a government that represents the people which is what everyone wants.
It's a great plan. Sure it could be tweaked but the principle of separation of the legislative and executive branches is what must stay in place. It will never pass and the reason is simple. The current state is nice for those that live in it. You can't ask the current government to vote for it's own demise. Well you can but they will never do it. Another equally solid reason is the global political climate. It's really easy for Obama to get Bibi to do what he wants. He and all his friends know that they will be there next time because they are protected by the party and it's list. If you can imagine though that Bibi tries to get his friends to vote for releasing prisoners. Now his friends all were voted in directly and they will have to take that into account when they vote and Bibi has no power other than to just ask. Ironically the very system that his country was founded on works against him in other countries but that's the way it is. When the voice that is breathing down the neck is Bibi and not the people well you know who they will vote for and that's the very reason why Obama would probably be against it.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
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