ABSTRACT
Israel is a parliamentary democracy that has been ruled, since its establishment in 1948, by multi-party coalition governments. Party leaders – prominent among them David Ben-Gurion, leader of the Mapai Party, who is seen as the founding father of the state of Israel – were central actors in Zionist and Israeli politics from the pre-state period. Party leaders were, and still are, almost always automatically regarded as the parties’ candidates for the highest executive positions: the prime ministership for the leaders of the largest parties and senior ministerial positions for the smaller ones. Six of Israel’s 12 prime ministers took office immediately following an intra-party procedure, with no general election held between the party’s decision and their inauguration (Kenig 2009c: 63). This emphasises the importance of leadership selection as a practice that has political consequences beyond the intra-party arena. While party leaders these days may not be perceived as the ‘giant’ leaders of earlier periods, their role in Israeli politics is nevertheless central, especially due to the processes of presidentialisation (Hazan 2005) and centralised personalisation (Balmas et al. 2012).
