ABSTRACT
The broad national coalition formed in Israel in 1984 was the unique outcome of a post-election stalemate. The 1984-1988 national unity government was so mired in party politics that its ability to function as a national executive was sometimes impaired. Each side could veto any decision that did not suit it, and Peres and the Labor Party had an incentive to prevent rotation from taking place; however, the effects of these factors were different. The mutual veto constrained decision making. There was one significant deviation from the pattern of maintaining the status quo by avoiding decisions. Decisions in coalition politics are based on two kinds of considerations: those which reflect rational bargaining, and those which reflect ideologies, political cultures and individual idiosyncrasies. The rotation scheme was an unsettling factor that could have upset the equilibrium which the coalition agreement was supposed to create.
