Candidates, parties and blocs: Israel in the 1990s

The Israeli party system, its parties and its voters, have undergone tremendous change. From a stable dominant party system through a competitive two-bloc system, it finds itself in the 1990s in a state of dealignment, with weakening parties, loosening party ties, fragmentation, growing volatility and frequent turnover in government. The combination of electoral reform, which instituted direct elections of the Prime Minister, new voting groups, and international shifts exacerbated in Israel the processes which characterize all Western democracies. While the party system and the parties are in disarray, candidates, issues and the political blocs of left and right grow in importance.