Abstract
Both Israel and India have witnessed formation of many coalitions since independence. Coalition has now become the indispensable part of the parliamentary democracies of the two nations. While coalition governments in both the countries increased participation of the smaller parties, they also resulted into political fragmentation by increasing the scope for coalition bargaining. The electoral transformations and political alignments in both these nations, however, do witness re-alignments in terms of increasing political awakening, youth participation and democratic governance. While parties and party systems across globe do witness declining trends, if not political decimation, the parliamentary politics in both Israel and India has been striving toward accommodating accessibility and political accountability to the electors and the common populace.
Coalitions though successful, have always found that their triumph has been brief.
Benjamin Disraeli quoted in Butler, 1978: 74
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Notes
- 1.
Riker points out that persons in real situations are analogous to n-person games in which the restraints limit the actual choice among coalitions.
- 2.
Israel at present has total 15 Basic Laws dealing with the formation and working of the principal institutions of the State and the relationship between and among State authorities. The 16th Basic Law on ‘Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People’ has yet to be approved and ratified by the Knesset.
- 3.
Uttar Pradesh has 80 Members of Parliament in Lok Sabha , whereas Sikkim, Mizoram and others have just one Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha .
- 4.
The party key was an instrument on the basis of which parties in the newly created state were able to distribute state resources among its members in anticipation of greater support and loyalty.
- 5.
The Lavon affair had actually occurred in 1954 in which Pinchas Lavon, the then minister of defence, was suspected of passing orders to the Israeli agents to carry out sabotage activities against the Egyptians in 1954. The Egyptians caught these agents and killed some of them. The incident defamed Israel in international arena and seriously questioned its diplomatic stature. Pinchas Lavon was asked to resign notwithstanding his claim that the orders were being passed by the then IDF Chief.
- 6.
Tashkent Agreement was signed by India and Pakistan on 10 January 1966 in which the two parties agreed to withdraw their forces pre-war positions, not to interfere in each other’s internal affairs, orderly transfer of prisoners of war and work toward improving bilateral relations.
- 7.
Congress (O) and Congress (R) referred to Organization and Requisionists, respectively, whereas the letter ‘I’ with Congress indicated Indira. Since 1971, Indian National Congress has come to be identified only with Congress (I).
- 8.
The members of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh also happened to be the members of its cultural mentor, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The controversy erupted when the elected members in Janata Party from BJS were asked to retain either of the memberships.
- 9.
UF was a conglomeration of non-Congress and non-BJP parties that succeeded in forming the coalition government in 1996—–initially under the premiership of Deve Gowda and subsequently under I K Gujral. The UF Government was also called the ‘crutch government’ as it survived only on the support of the Congress.
- 10.
The Indian armed forces thwarted the forced intrusions by the Pakistani army and ISI into the Kargil sector within India under Operation Vijay during May–July 1999.
- 11.
Sushma Swaraj of BJP went on to state that she would cut her hair if Sonia became the prime minister of the country.
- 12.
The 2013 Knesset comprised 49 freshmen and 27 women members constituting 41 and 23 per cent of the total strength, respectively.
- 13.
Contemporary electoral politics in both Israel and India has come to be described by the term M5. While Israeli M5 refers to Masoret , Moledet, Mussar, Mishpacha and Matz’biya (meaning, respectively, tradition, homeland, ethics, solidarity and voters), Indian M5 indicated Mandal , Mandir, Masjid , Market and Matdata (representing, respectively, the issues of caste, community, religion, market and voters).
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Choudhary, S.K. (2018). Coalition Politics in Israel and India. In: The Changing Face of Parties and Party Systems . Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5175-3_13
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