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

Israel's prime ministers have held various levels of approval ratings. Several factors contribute to these ratings, including: the political and security situation at each point in time, the level of criticism expressed by the media, the circumstances under which s/he was elected, and their personal charisma as perceived by the public.

The information provided here is based on three types of continuing surveys: Election Surveys, National Security Surveys, and Democracy Surveys. Data was gathered in July 1984; October 1988; June 1992; May 1996; February 1998; January 1999; January 2001; January 2003; July, September, and December 2005; and March 2006. The sample size of these surveys varied from 515 respondents (in January 2001) to over 2,000 respondents (in July 2005). The average sample size is over 1,100 respondents.

 

How We Measured Approval Ratings

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.

Findings

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 b