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Article: The Americanization of Israeli elections.
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- May 24, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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For some observers, the victory of Ehud Barak in Israel's recent elections was the best hope for peace in the region. But the acrimony of the extremely negative campaign exposed divisions within Israel that are far from resolved. These tensions were exacerbated by a recent change in Israeli election methods that also tell us something about American politics.
In 1995, Israel adopted a U.S.-style ``winner-take-all'' method to directly elect their prime minister. Previously, Israel was a traditional parliamentary democracy, where the prime minister was the leader of the party or coalition of parties that controlled the national legislature. In the country's system ...