David Kaiser has a nice overview of the Israeli elections, quod vide. What I’m curious about (and can’t find a way to ask him directly), though, is this bit:
Alone among democracies, Israel elects [its] 120 Knesset deputies according to proportional representation.
Unless I’m missing Kaiser’s point, this will be news to a rather long list of democracies that choose their legislators with some form or other of PR, including the Netherlands, which, like Israel, uses a nation-wide party list (most countries using PR have smaller multi-member districts).
As a side note, the recent role of Republican senators Collins, Snowe and Specter in negotiating the stimulus bill should put to rest the notion that the disproportionate negotiating power of a small swing group is peculiar to PR systems. Not that there aren’t plenty of other examples—Gang of 14, anyone?
Comments are open, David.