The Elections in Israel 1999

3. Split-ticket Voting in the 1996 and 1999 Elections

3 Split-ticket Voting in the 1996 and 1999 Elections Dana Arieli-Horowitz Split-ticket voting in Israel’s general elections is a relatively new phenomenon that came about after the reform of the general elections system and after the 1996 transition to direct election of the prime minister. Before the general elections system reform, the ticket splitting discused in Israel’s research literature focused on one of two phenomena. The first referred to ticket splitting at the municipal and national levels in instances when individuals chose one party in the general elections and another at the municipal level. The second , after the 1975 municipal elections system reform, had to do with a voter’s ability to split her vote between the candidate slated to head the local authority and the candidates for council seats. The transition to direct election of the prime minister created the potential for split-ticket voting at the national level in Israel, which is the focus of this chapter. The theoretical literature worldwide on the subject of ticket splitting mainly addresses presidential regimes where voters split their ballots between the candidate for presidency and the candidate for legislative representative. A considerable portion of the research literature focuses on the United States, where the phenomenon of split-ticket voting has been investigated at length in recent years. The Israeli model is unique and exceptional in the sense that it combines both direct prime ministerial elections with an extreme form of proportional representation system. Beyond the tension between representative and direct democracy, as reflected in Israel’s new election system, the phenomenon of ticket splitting in Israel has far-reaching implications for the relationship between the executive and legislative authorities, the authority of 45 The author expresses her gratitude to Tamar Edri, general director of the Central Election Committee at the Knesset; to Michal Shamir and Yossi Shain for reading an early draft; to Sigal Kis for her assistance with the database, and to Michael Shalev for granting access to his database , which matches the 1996 election results with the 1995 general census. the prime minister, the Knesset’s power, Israel’s constellation of parties, and, indirectly, for the deepening cleavages in Israeli society. Double-ballot voting—one for the premiership and the other for a legislative party—has naturally led to a significant increase in the level of splitticket voting. In the case of Israel, however, the method by which the prime minister and the Knesset are elected allows a potential for many types of split-ticket voting—at least in theory. As opposed to the American scenario, which accommodates only limited ticket splitting, Israel’s system allows for a much wider range of split-ticket voting. In this chapter, I will attempt to sketch the possible scenarios for ticket splitting in Israel as well as potential typologies for investigating the phenomenon of split-ticket voting. To group the possible scenarios toward a systematic discussion of splitticket voting, we propose differentiating straight voting, split-ticket voting within party blocs, and split-ticket voting that transcends the boundaries of political blocs. We will investigate ticket-splitting trends in Israel with reference to the two most recent general election campaigns, in 1996 and 1999. A comparison of these two campaigns already points to a trend of steady increases in split-ticket voting in Israel. We will examine the split-ticket voting phenomenon in Israel by addressing a number of central issues. The first issue deals at length with the terminology and typology of the main concepts researchers employ in discussing split-ticket voting. This discussion will address the main reasons for split-ticket voting, as reflected in the current theoretical research on this subject worldwide. The second issue concerns the split-ticket voting phenomenon in Israel’s municipal elections in the wake of the 1975 local government reform. Within this framework, we will examine the approaches to split-ticket voting addressed in the research literature, summarized in Gad Barzilai’s distinction between internal and external split-ticket voting (1993, 141–163). We will address the question whether Israeli citizens are consciously split-ticket voters , and whether they distinguish between the general elections—as a process involving existential values that require decisions based on a consolidated worldview and a sense of ideology—and the municipal elections, which deal with urban questions, and therefore do not necessarily encourage voting based on ideology or factional loyalty. The third issue focuses on the rising trend toward ticket splitting in...