ABSTRACT
Since the first election to the Constituent Assembly, or First Knesset, in 1949, Israeli politicians have become dissatisfied with the existing electoral system. Israel's political system is a descendant of the prestate system used by the World Zionist Organization. Politicians favored by the old system, which was based on proportional representation and made possible representation by diverse minority groups, continued to employ that system after the state became independent. Until 1977, Menachem Begin and a small group of loyalists formed Herut's list according to a single criterion: who could expand the party's electoral appeal. Unlike Herut, however, in 1988 the Labor procedure resulted in a balanced outcome, with new faces, youth, Sephardim, women, and Arabs—all of the necessary elements to help capture the government from Likud. The legislation that provides for financing the activities of Israeli parties during and between elections is the Party Financing Law of 1973.
