Approval Ratings for Israel's Prime Ministers from 1984 to 2006

Approval ratings for prime ministers were measured on a 10-point scale based on the question: Please indicate your level of support for or opposition to the Prime Minister. A score of 1 indicates strong repulsion (hatred), and as the score gets higher, it indicates an increasing amount of fondness. A score of 10 indicates a high level of fondness.[1] 

We processed the answers in two categories: A score of 1-5 we categorized as lack of support and 6-10 we categorized as support.

In Figure 1 approval rating scores for prime ministers during their respective terms of service when the surveys were taken between 1984 and 2006 are shown.[2]  In the upper part of the figure, central events that occurred around the time the survey was taken are mentioned. Out of the prime ministers that were surveyed, in a survey taken before the elections to the 14th Knesset in May 1996, the Prime Minister that received the highest approval rating is Shimon Peres. According to a survey taken before the elections to the 16th Knesset in January 2001, the Prime Minister with the lowest approval rating while in office is Ehud Barak. Olmert also received low approval ratings in March 2006, but at that time he was Acting Prime Minister and not yet the elected Prime Minister, so this finding cannot be compared to the other ratings. It is important to note that since the approval ratings were surveyed in different periods of time, in different samples (all probabilistic, of course), comparing approval rates must be done cautiously.

Figure 1: Percentage of Support for the Prime Minister

Figure 1 reveals that approval ratings for the Prime Minister tend to be higher when national security occupies a central position in political and media discourse. Peres' approval rating (ranking the highest, at 64.6%) was measured one month after Operation Grapes of Wrath, a reaction to the Hamas suicide bombings, was initiated. Shamir's high approval ratings (61.5%) in the October 1988 survey were also probably affected by security-related events, namely the beginning of the first intifada in late 1987 and the assassination of Khalil Al-Wazir (known as Abu Jihad) in April 1988.

Conversely, Netanyahu's approval ratings rose slightly in 1998 once peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians resumed and culminated with the Wye River Memorandum. Another interesting finding is that some prime ministers received consistent approval ratings over a period of time. For example, Sharon's approval rating is consistent in different surveys conducted in a three-year period. Towards the end of Shamir's term in 1992, his approval rating was similar to his 1984 score. There is not enough evidence to support the hypothesis that  the sharp rise in Shamir's approval rating in October 1988 was a direct consequence of the outbreak of the Intifada.

Figure 2 shows average approval rating scores for prime ministers while in office. The figure shows that though the average approval ratings’ variance is significant, the scores are high, ranging from 4.3 to 6.4. The data shows that despite volatile approval rates, only three cases indicate a lack of approval (i.e., a score less than five), two of which (Shamir and Barak) received their ratings right before the elections they lost.

Figure 2: Average Approval Ratings for Prime Ministers during Their Service

Figure 3 divides approval ratings into three levels: low, medium, and high. This figure also shows that the Prime Ministers who received the highest approval rates while in office were Shamir, Peres, and Netanyahu. All other prime ministers received high scores from less than a third of respondents (Sharon received high scores from almost one-third of the respondents in January 2003). The lowest scores were given to Shamir and Peres. The figure shows that aside from Olmert (who, as mentioned earlier, was Acting Prime Minister at the time of the survey, and cannot be counted in such a comparison), the highest rate of lack of approval (lowest approval score) was attributed to Barak. Figure 3 also shows that Shamir (1984 and 1988), Barak, and Sharon (2005) received the highest rate of respondents who reported a medium level of approval. All other prime ministers received a medium approval rating of under 40%.

Figure 3: Levels of Approval Ratings for Prime Ministers

Figure 4 shows a comparison between Barak's and Sharon's approval ratings. Unlike in the previous 3 figures which showed approval ratings for prime ministers, figure 4 shows the rate of respondents who thought that the Prime Minister was adequately fulfilling his role as prime minister.

The figure shows that both Barak and Sharon received positive reception at first – over two-thirds of respondents reported that they believe that Barak is adequately fulfilling his role as prime minister in early July 1999, while the 28th government, led by Barak, was being formed. Over 70% of respondents reported that in their opinion Sharon was adequately fulfilling his role as prime minister in the beginning of July 2002, right before he formed the 30th government (by then Sharon had already been prime minister for a year and a half and this was the second, consecutive government that he was forming, since he gained office in March 2001). The data shows that with time, the rate of people who held that Barak and Sharon were adequately fulfilling their roles as prime ministers decreased. From July 1999 to May 2000 the respondents' assessment of Barak decreased by 20%; from July 2002 to September 2005 respondents' assessment of Sharon decreased by 25%.

Figure 4: Percentage of the Public that are Certain that the Prime Minister is Adequately Fulfilling His/Her Role as Prime Minister

• Israel has had thirteen prime ministers and one Acting Prime Minister (Yigal Alon) who served for one month following Levi Eshkol's death before being replaced by Golda Meir).
• Most Israeli prime ministers were over 60 years old when elected (not including Rabin, Netanyahu, and Barak that were elected at ages 52, 47, and 57 respectively).
• Five Israeli prime ministers were born in Israel (Rabin, Barak, Netanyahu, Sharon, and Olmert ), and seven were born in Eastern Europe (Ben Gurion, Sharet, Eshkol, Meir, Begin, Shamir, and Peres).
• Three prime ministers had extensive careers in the Israeli Army (Rabin, Barak, and Sharon); two had extensive careers in national security (Shamir and Peres); and seven priorly held diplomatic positions.
• Most prime ministers headed the largest party in the Knesset (with the exception of Shamir, 1984 and 1990; Netanyahu, 1996; and Sharon, 2001).
• Before the system of direct elections was implemented, prime ministers served for an average of five and a half years (not including Ben Gurion, 13.5 years; Sharet, two years; Peres served the first coalition government for 25 months and for half a year after Rabin's assassination).
• Since 1996, Israel has had four prime ministers. Netanyahu served for three years, 1996-1999; Barak for two, 1999-2001; Sharon served for two years in his first term and three in his second until January 2006; and Olmert has been Prime Minister since.

Figure 5: Prime Ministers in Israel 1948-2006

Pictures in this article are courteously supplied by the Government Press Office and the Knesset's website.

Eliyahu Sapir is a PhD student at the Department of Political Science, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is an RA at the IDI's Guttman Center.

The author wishes to thank IDI Senior Fellow Professor Asher Arian, Director of the Guttman Center; Dr. Raphael Ventura, head of the Guttman database; Ms. Einav Livne Ben-Eliezer, Director of the IDI website, and Ms. Hila Elroy, research assistant at the Guttman Center for their assistance and constructive comments. The author is solely responsible for the content of this article.

[2] It is important to note that approval ratings indicate the public's rate of approval for the Prime Minister on the particular day the survey is taken. It does not indicate continuous approval.