Israel is in a deep constitutional-governmental crisis, and the current system of government and elections does not yield the basic result: the establishment of a stable government that works for the public for several years in the Knesset's trust.
This chaotic reality - five elections in about three years - requires a correction of the system of government.
Proposals for regime change have been resonating in public discourse for decades.
From Ben-Gurion, who founded Rafi and sought in 1965 to change the method of election to the Knesset, to Netanyahu, who launched the Likud campaign in 2015 with the slogan "change the system," with a dramatic promise of fundamental change.
A comprehensive examination of the change in the system of government was made in 2007 by the "Fencing Committee", which operated under the Center for Citizen Empowerment.
But the problem is recurring.
Most of the proposals for changing the system are to strengthen the large parties and increase stability, so in most cases they have met with opposition from small and sectoral parties who feared for their power.
Here are four suggestions for change:
1. The head of the largest party, provided he obtains 40 seats, will automatically be prime minister, unless 61 MKs support another MK.
Any party that wants to join the government and get ministerial positions, will have to negotiate with a party that will certainly control. In such a reality, the bargaining power and blackmail of the small parties will be greatly reduced.
The ruling faction will of course have an interest in joining as many parties as possible, and gaining the support of 61 Knesset members or more, so that the government can promote legislative moves in the Knesset, but in practice can be a minority government and not disintegrate like the current government.
In case no party gets 40 seats, then the head of the largest party will first get the opportunity to form a government, and he will need a vote of confidence in the Knesset.
2. Elections on Election Day, this is a proposal that works in several places in the world and strengthens the commitment of the elected representatives to the voters.
This means that the party's voters on election day will mark the party's candidates on the ballot paper, so that all actual party supporters, and only them, will be able to participate in determining its representatives in the Knesset, and not for power and interest groups.
3. As difficult as it is to form governments in Israel, it is easy to dismantle them.
In order to improve the system of government, action must be taken to abolish the automatic dispersal mechanisms of the Knesset - such as severing the connection between the continued tenure of the Knesset and the approval of the state budget proposal, and to stop using the budget for political purposes.
Also, abolish the automatic dispersal mechanism in the failure of the government train, which sent Israel on three rounds.
4. The terrible invention of the "exchange government" mechanism ("the privatization") - must be shelved and thrown away.
It is a model that does not exist anywhere in the world and was born as a political deal.
We must not let him stay with us.
Albert Einstein explained that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
In the face of the ongoing power crisis, continued action under the existing system is tantamount to insanity of the political system.
Matan Gutman is a doctor of law, an expert in constitutional law at Reichman University, and a senior research fellow in changing the system of government at the Center for Citizen Empowerment. Eli Marzel is the director general of the Tel Aviv-Yafo Academic College, former director general For the empowerment of the citizen
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