Thursday, February 12, 2009

Israel: another argument against party lists

"Make Votes Count" explains why the Israeli system leads to governmental constipation.

2 comments:

Costigan Quist said...

The ability to kick out an elected representative is critical for a good system.

List systems (including the one we use for Euro election) fail dismally. First-Past-the-Post is little better, with its many safe seats. STV, or something like it, seems to be the best option.

Frank Little said...

I couldn't agree more. It works in Ireland, so why not here?

Another feature of the Israeli system makes forming governments difficult: the low "threshold". Thus some very minority views have at least one representative in the Knesset.