The Forum for Political Reform in Israel

IDI's Forum for Political Reform in Israel was established by IDI President Dr. Arye Carmon in September 2009 in response to "the urgent need to generate significant improvement in the capabilities and functioning of the Knesset."

The Forum met over the course of 2009-2010 under the chairmanship of Supreme Court President (Ret.) Justice Meir Shamgar, and brought together leading academicians, retired judges and politicians, public figures, and businessmen to formulate practical proposals for structural reform, with a special emphasis on strengthening the Knesset through fundamental changes to Israel’s electoral system.
 
The call to change the governmental system had been circulating in the public discourse for quite some time. This phenomenon was strengthened by the findings of IDI’s 2009 Israeli Democracy Index, which pointed to a worrying trend of erosion in the Israeli public’s confidence in most of the democratic institutions and structures, and revealed the public's rejection of politics. For Israeli democracy to remain stable and healthy, the public must provide legitimacy to its elected officials and this was not happening.

Headed by IDI Senior Researcher Prof. Gideon Rahat, IDI's team of ten researchers formulated a series of recommendations for political reform. The work was based on a rigorous analysis of the performance of Israel's political system since the founding of the State and on a comparative study of the performance of 35 developed democracies throughout the world. The underlying principle of the work was that parliamentary democracy is the only political system that can properly represent the varied groups, beliefs, opinions and desires in Israel's multicultural society.
 
At each stage, the IDI research group presented its recommendations to the members of the Forum for Political Reform in Israel. Established by IDI in September 2009, the forum and its committees were comprised of approximately 100 senior figures of the Israeli political and legal system, including retired Supreme Court justices, former ministers and former Knesset members, CEOs of government agencies,  municipal public officials, former government secretaries, former director generals of the Prime Minister’s Office, public figures, university presidents, and representatives of the business sector. These participants carefully examined the electoral and structural reforms aimed at repairing and stabilizing the systems upon which Israeli parliamentary democracy is based.

The proposals of the IDI research team and the Forum were presented to the Knesset for debate and implementation on March 28, 2011.


Chairman of the Forum: Supreme Court President (ret.) Justice Meir Shamgar

The IDI Research Team

Director: Prof. Gideon Rahat

1. Political Parties Team: Dr. Ofer Kenig, Assaf Shapira, Reut Itzkovitch Malka, Michael Philippov
2. Knesset Team: Dr. Chen Friedberg, Nir Atmor
3. Government Team: Dr. Shlomit Barnea, Mr. Shurik Draishpits, Mattan Sharkansky, Or Tuttnauer
4. Electoral System Team: Dr. Chen Friedberg, Nir Atmor, Anna Knafelman (former member)
   

Academic Consultant: Prof. Matthew S. Shugart, University of California, San Diego

1. Opening session of the Forum for Political Reform in Israel (October 25, 2009): Objectives and Implementation
   
   
2. Second session of the Forum for Political Reform in Israel (January 3, 2010): The Electoral Threshold
   
   
3. Third session of the Forum for Political Reform in Israel (March 18, 2010): Internal Party Dynamics
   
   
4. Fourth session of the Forum for Political Reform in Israel (June 13, 2010): Regulation of Party Codes and Ethics
   
   
5. Fifth session of the Forum for Political Reform in Israel (September 15, 2010)
   
   
6. Sixth session of the Forum for Political Reform in Israel (January 2, 2011)