# Why is the Israeli party system so fractured? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 27, 2011, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-israeli-party-system-so-fractured/607481 "2011-12-27T02:17:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-israeli-party-system-so-fractured/607481/21 "2011-12-28T16:18:50Z")
> [@2sense](#): > > I disagree. I’d say that segregating religious conservatives from business conservatives could well make both easier to deal with. In any case this analysis is backwards. A democracy should be judged on how well it represents its citizenry not on how well it reflects your personal opinions. You’ll notice that religious conservatives have vastly more influence in Israel than they do in America despite the fact that religious conservatives make up a vastly larger percentage of the population. That’s what happens in a country which declares any political party that can get 2% of the vote automatically gets roughly 2% of seats in the Parliament(Knesset). That’s why Israel is largely governed by ineffective coalition governments. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-israeli-party-system-so-fractured/607481/22 "2011-12-28T16:42:31Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > That’s why Israel is largely governed by ineffective coalition governments. A problem which arises only if you combine PR with a parliamentary system. In a presidential or separation-of-powers system, the executive is elected separately and the legislature has no need to “form a government.” ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-israeli-party-system-so-fractured/607481/23 "2011-12-28T17:52:46Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > A problem which arises only if you combine PR with a parliamentary system. In a presidential or separation-of-powers system, the executive is elected separately and the legislature has no need to “form a government.” This is false. ---
**Author:** ![Premislaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f0a364/32.png) [@Premislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Premislaus)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-israeli-party-system-so-fractured/607481/24 "2011-12-29T20:44:09Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > That’s why having proportional representation for political parties is a bad idea. > > It empowers the radicals. Fallacy. Not every proportional electoral system empowers the radicals, only a badly designed (like the one in Israel) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-israeli-party-system-so-fractured/607481/25 "2011-12-29T22:59:15Z")
> [@Maeglin](#): > > This is false. 😕 What do **you** think a “separation-of-powers” system means?! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-israeli-party-system-so-fractured/607481/26 "2011-12-29T23:08:35Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > It empowers the radicals. Wait, why is **that,** in ideologically-neutral civic terms, a bad idea?! Any group of radicals that gets enough votes to meet a threshhold clearly represents a significant number of citizens who feel strongly about whatever this form of radicalism means and demands; right or wrong, they deserve to have their POV heard in the public sphere just like other citizens. And sometimes radicals have good ideas nobody else would have thought of. And radicals right and left will more or less balance each other out. I don’t mind if a White Nationalist party forms and gets David Duke (or somebody like him) into Congress – Louis Farrakhan (oslh) will be there too, both of them inside the tent pissing out, and intermittently on each other. It certainly would make C-Span more entertaining. And, it’s a safety valve. Maybe if Timothy McVeigh had been able to look to Congress and see David Duke (WN) sitting there preaching the hate-word on the taxpayers’ dime, he would not have felt so frustrated he had to express his political views through mass murder. Maybe. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-israeli-party-system-so-fractured/607481.md?page=1)