Political Entrepreneurs and Institutional Change: Cancellation of the Direct Election of the Prime Minister

Abstract

This chapter describes the formal revision of an institutional rule in the political system operating in a democracy. The empirical question examined in this chapter is: Why and under which conditions do basic institutional changes take place in a political system? What determines the character and design of such changes? What factors explain the change’s stability? We shall use the law canceling the direct election of Israel’s prime minister as a case study for the purpose of examining these questions in general and the various action strategies of specific players in particular.