This next month will be devoted to the compilation of party lists for the Knesset, which must be submitted by Feb. 21. Historically, political parties in Israel have undergone a process of democratization. The number of people involved in deciding on the lists has expanded, but however important that might be, that process has often entailed decidedly undemocratic phenomena.
In the first decades of the state, the system of a party committee that arranged the lists was common. These were small committees of members of the party leadership who would decide on the list. Since the 1970s, that role has been transferred to elected part mechanisms like councils or central committees, who select the list from among thousands of members. In the 1990s, the party primary system arrived in Israel, in which all party members participate in deciding its Knesset list.
However, expanding participation led to things that have nothing to do with democracy. For example, candidates' need to reach out to tens of thousands of potential voters demands a lot of money, which means that wealthy candidates have an advantage, or that candidates need to form unhealthy relationships with the wealthy.
There is also the attempt to rope in thousands of party members who are politically uncommitted and can be manipulated. In a situation like this, democracy is replaced by a small organized group that is focused on promoting specific candidates, and sometimes parties find themselves stuck with representatives who could be a bad weed.
Populism is another issue. Making headlines is one way of making oneself known. This is one of the reasons, although not the only one, for the flood of private members' bills in the Knesset. Israel sees more private members' bills than any country in the world, many of which do not even move ahead in the legislative process, and that also has an effect on party primaries.
The range of possible ways to decide on a party list is wide: at one end of the spectrum, there are primaries in which all members take part, one that is used only in the Likud and Labor. At the other end of the spectrum, there are lists that are compiled solely by party leaders or a team they appoint. There are also parties who hold primaries in limited frameworks, such as a central committee.
According to what we are seeing in polls, there will be more MKs who were appointed by leaders of their parties than there are who won open primaries. That is how things will be in Yesh Atid, Israel Resilience, the New Right, Gesher, Kulanu, and Yisrael Beytenu. The ultra-Orthodox parties operate the same way, with their religious leaders determining the lists along with the political leadership.
A closed-list system is accepted. After the lists are submitted, they cannot be altered, although there are democratic countries in which voters can influence parliament lists, even on election day. Rather than putting a small ballot with a party's name in the ballot box, we could be given lists of candidates chosen by their parties, through processes that each party will decide on. On election day, all the voters could tick off the names of the candidates they want to see on the list. That system would ensure that on election day, all the voters for a given party could take part in putting together its Knesset list.
