Expanding Israeli Democracy by Reviving “Demos Kratos”

Last week (https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/towards-one-branch-democracy/), I analyzed the gradual “takeover” of the Legislative Branch of government by the Executive Branch in Israel and in the U.S., and the danger facing their respective democratic systems as a result. One of the ways to ameliorate such a dangerous tendency is to strengthen democracy from a different direction.

“Democracy” means “power to the people.” Given how general such a term is, the practical question becomes: “how to ensure such people power?” This has become especially relevant in the past year or so in Israel given the disconnect (as seen in periodic polls over the course of many months) between a large majority of its citizenry and their government, on a host of issues: 1) Returning all the hostages by ending the war in Gaza; 2) Setting up an official Commission of Inquiry regarding all the factors leading up to the Oct. 7, 2023 disaster; 3) Passing legislation forcing ultra-Orthodox men to be drafted into the IDF, with significant financial (or criminal) penalties for those who refuse; 4) Halting the “Judicial Reform/Revolution.” In all four cases, a clear majority (for the first three, closer to 70%!) of the Israeli public hold a position in opposition to the government’s policy.
The government’s response to the public: “we won the election and maintain a clear majority in the Knesset; if you want change, wait until late 2026 when new elections will be held.” That’s technically correct under Israel’s present system. But there’s nothing sacrosanct about such a system. Indeed, the practical structure of democracy has many faces. Almost all democracies have somewhat different ways of enabling “people power” action, whether in the overall system as a whole (parliamentary versus presidential), or in some addition to elections as a bulwark against deeply unpopular governmental policy.

For example, thirteen U.S. states have a provision enabling a ballot measure that gives voters a chance to call for a convention without collecting signatures or seeking legislative approval. Five states (Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island) automatically provide the chance to vote for a convention every 10 years. (For anyone wondering whether this can be used by President Trump to run for a third term in 2028 by changing the Constitution’s 25th Amendment prohibition, the answer is no: only the state legislatures – 2/3 of them – can decide to ask Congress for such a change, and then 3/4 of the states have to approve it; a very long shot, given that the Democratic Party holds the reins in more than 1/3 of the state legislatures.)

Perhaps more germane to Israel is the Swiss system. The federal government holds up to four elections a year, with 6-12 referenda measures each year. Its democracy works extremely well, despite the country being divided into dozens of cantons with four different languages – not a monolithic society at all. Another highly diverse country, Italy, also allows any law to be put to a popular referendum and there have been dozens that have successfully done so since 1948.

Referenda on specific policies are not the only way to empower the citizenry between elections (the details here can be changed; the general idea is what’s important). The ability to engender electoral “recall” is no less important. This is almost impossible in a “presidential” system that almost always sets a strict tenure for elections, as in the U.S. (2 years for Congresspeople, 4 years for President, 6 years for Senators). But in a parliamentary system such as Israel’s where elections can be held at any juncture and most of the time they are in fact held before the end of the government’s term, empowering the citizenry to force new elections entails no systemic barrier.

How would that work? In order for new elections to be called (not by the already institutionalized Knesset vote of “constructive no confidence” in the government in which the Knesset majority has to also designate who will be the new prime minister and government), a super majority of all voting-eligible citizens (e.g., 60%) would have to sign a petition calling for new elections. The onus of gathering the initial signatures would be borne by willing citizens or any legally recognized non-profit institution. After it gained the required number of signatures, it would be vetted and approved by Israel’s official Elections Commission to ensure that the requisite number of signatures was reached.

The greatest argument against enabling different forms of in-between-election “people power,” is the fear of populist sentiment overturning important civil rights or other democratic fundamentals. There are two main solutions to that. First, the bar for any change – whether calling for early elections, negating recent legislation, or directing future government policy – should be set quite high, ergo the required 60% super majority mentioned above. Second, assuming that a country has a Constitution, any changes or additions to it would have to go through even more stringent procedures or an even higher public majority (e.g., 75%). Israel has several Basic Laws, already comprising 90% of what would be included in a Constitution.

Of course, there’s one major obstacle in the way of any of the above procedures: they have to be legislated into law – precisely by the people (legislators!) who would be losing their present exclusive authority to pass laws and set policy. How to overcome that? A major party would have to put “people power” on their agenda – a strategy that should be quite popular with the populace. Israel today already has one party call “The Democrats” (ha’demokratim) and another party (officially nameless but being put together by former PM Naftali Bennett who leads in the polls) standing for greater transparency – and playing by the rules of the game.
Israelis are easily among the most political knowledgeable (and involved) citizens in the entire democratic world. The time has come to enable them to use their political acumen more often than once every four years.