ABSTRACT
The forming of a coalition in parliamentary regimes such as Israel is a fundamental part of the democratic process. It is conditional on the negotiations where the costs and benefits of coalition partnerships are discussed. After a coalition agreement has been created, the coalition faces an equally difficult set of tasks: to apply its policies in the Knesset and to complete its term as defined by law. The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, is a useful subject for research into coalition theories. This chapter focuses on the factors affecting coalition stability in multi-party and multi-dimensional political systems. The center of mass (CM) represents a new solution for multiparty and multi-dimensional political systems; therefore the chapter examines how coalition stability is affected by the distance between the coalition policy agreement and the CM of the parliament. The important contribution of the CM in relation to other solutions was demonstrated in the results for the nineteenth Knesset.
