Israel entered the number of modern states on 05/14/1948. The form of government here is a parliamentary republic. This unitary country was founded by a UN resolution in November 1947 when the English mandate on Palestine was canceled, the territory of which was divided into two independent states - Arab and Jewish.
Government structure
Israel, whose form of government and government is a unitary type, is administratively divided into six districts. The power system here is unique. Since 1996, this country is the only one in the world where the president is elected by parliament, and the prime minister is elected by the people, directly by the citizens themselves.
Here is a democratic political regime. The Constitution does not play the role of a legal act and does not have the main legal force. Instead, there are separate so-called Basic Laws. Between 1955 and the 1988th Knesset (the so-called parliament), nine such legal acts were passed - on the Knesset, the lands, the government, the president, the economy, the capital of Jerusalem, the army, the elections and the judiciary. Israel, whose form of government distinguishes it from all known states, is completely bypassed by nine laws.
The laws
The difference between the Basic Laws and the Constitution is that under no circumstances can they be suspended, amended by decrees, even in the most emergency situations. The laws contain some articles called “fortified”, which can be amended, but this is incredibly difficult to do. To this end, Israel, whose form of government requires not just consent, but the votes of the absolute majority of the Knesset members, is conducting long and exhausting voting procedures. So it was once, when the question arose of holding parliamentary elections in a different, proportional pattern.
For a long time the laws were not replenished, only in 1992 two new ones were adopted. These are the Basic Laws on the freedom of profession and on human dignity. The first was refined for a long time and in the final version came out only in 1994, now it is fully fortified. In the last decade, other laws have been adopted, but they did not become Basic, although they can be quite related to them in content. The form of government in Israel is becoming increasingly democratic.
Reasons for the lack of a constitution
In this country, there are two concepts in the vision of forms of government, which is why the parties do not stop the confrontation and can not bring two different worldviews to a common denominator. There are supporters of the concept of secular government who advocate the adoption of the Constitution, and their opponents - theocrats - deny the need for a different code of laws, except the Torah. The question of the role of religion is acute, so the form of government in Israel is significantly different from other countries.
The Parliament, the Knesset, is unicameral and consists of one hundred and twenty deputies who are elected for four years. All legislative power is concentrated in his hands. Here, suffrage and a system of proportional representation apply. Until 1996, the prime minister was elected by the ruling party, and subsequently the elections to the Knesset began to be combined with direct elections of the main figure of the state. Then the Prime Minister received the privilege of dissolving the Knesset if he sees that most of the deputies are opposed to him. Such is the form of state. board. Israel in this matter is ahead of the rest.
Power
The legislative power is not limited practically by anything, veto laws cannot be imposed on already adopted laws, they are not canceled even by the Supreme Court. The Knesset also has broad powers with respect to directing and supervising the government and its actions. This exists in other countries, but not in all, depending on what form of government.
In Israel, everything possible has been done so that laws cannot be outwitted. The Knesset approves the budget, monitors all government activities with the help of deputy requests to the ministries, and it also conducts parliamentary investigations. The Knesset has the right to resign the government if it expresses a vote of no confidence.
Parliament and Government
The form of government in Israel was borrowed from the British model, where the legislative initiative is mainly carried out by the government. Each law is adopted by a majority of the deputies present (by the way, absolutely any number of them already constitutes a quorum).
Exceptions are laws that amend the electoral system or relate to the Basic Laws. In these cases, an absolute majority is required, determined according to the law.
The president
The head of state is elected by the Knesset for five years. This is the president, whose status is determined by the Basic Law, published in 1964. The president has no right to work for more than two consecutive terms. However, he is a practically nominal person, performs ceremonial functions and has no political weight in the country.
The powers of the president are executed on the recommendations of government ministers: he signs all sorts of agreements that the Knesset has already ratified, as well as laws that do not concern his powers.
Here is a form of government, Israel, however, is considered a presidential republic. In other countries, presidents have veto power; the Israeli president does not. He can appoint diplomatic representatives and accept credentials, but he does not have executive power.
Prime Minister
But this person is the head of the government, and he is elected directly by the population. Candidates run for one or more parties that have at least ten seats in the Knesset, or collect fifty thousand signatures.
A candidate for prime minister may not be younger than thirty years old, and must top the party list. More than two years as a prime minister, no one can spend. The head of government actually directs both the foreign and domestic policies of the state, but all important decisions must first be approved by the Knesset.
Vote of no confidence
This is the current form of government in Israel. With the approval of the Knesset, the Prime Minister may appoint or remove a member of the government. However, the government is responsible to parliament. If a vote of no confidence is passed, only sixty-one votes in excess of the majority are enough for this act to be considered completed.
Then the elections are held again - both the Knesset and the Prime Minister. In order to declare a vote of no confidence in the Knesset, the Knesset needs to get a majority of eighty-one votes, and in order to remove it for, for example, moral and ethical misconduct, you need the usual parliamentary majority of sixty-one votes. Then only the prime minister is re-elected.
Legal system
The legal system in the country is mixed, since there are features of both continental (Roman-Germanic) and Anglo-Saxon law. In addition, two completely different systems of religious law influence here - Muslim and Jewish, which are widely used within confessions that Israel cannot reconcile in any way. The form of government and administrative structure depend on the very history of the formation of this state.
Until 1918, these territories belonged to Turkey, where the originally formed law of the Ottoman Empire existed. The foundations of this right, which operated in Palestine, are also composed of sources of different origins. For the right of ownership set forth in the code of "Majalla" - the norms of Islamic law (Hanifah school). Family and marriage relations and inheritance rights were interpreted by non-codified Islamic law, and the sphere of trade was governed by laws drawn by the Turks in French sources.
England
In 1922, Great Britain got the mandate of the League of Nations, thanks to which it ruled Palestine until 1947. Then a decree came out, according to which all courts of this territory continued to apply the legislation of the Ottoman state in full - and those that were in force until February 1914, and laws issued later, and legal acts that the Palestinian authorities adopted.
The usual colonial practice also operated - the courts were authorized, in the absence of the necessary rules in the law, to act on the basis of the postulates of common law and justice. Thus, English law gradually supplanted Franco-Ottoman law . And crowded out.
Israeli laws
When thousands of Jews poured into Palestine, Jewish religious law tried to preserve all the rest, because the existing laws that did not contradict the declaration of independence and those laws that would subsequently be adopted by the Knesset were retained by decree. This process is still in effect, as the laws of the Ottoman Empire and many laws of the time of the mandate still exist.
For years, on the basis of decisions of the Supreme Court, a special code on civil rights has been formed - case law: freedom of assembly, speech, religion, equality before the law. Israel can be proud of these values. The form of government and the state system of the country made it possible to make laws effective, despite their mixed character.
State Comptroller
There is another position, approved in 1949, to ensure the responsibility of state authorities to society. This is the State Comptroller - the highest control body, which takes the form of government. Israel instructs the State Comptroller to verify the legality, efficiency, effectiveness, even the ethical aspects in the actions of the administration and all officials.
Since 1971, the State Comptroller has been given the functions of an ombudsman, that is, a parliamentary commissioner who examines citizens ’complaints. Such a person is elected for five years by secret ballot of all Knesset deputies and reports only to him. The State Comptroller can check any accounts, archives and personal files of employees of any institutions, his access is unlimited. He checks ministries, government agencies, defense infrastructure, any local and state authorities, government corporations, state enterprises, in a word - everything, down to the activities of political parties and any of their financial reports.
Religion
Religion is not separated from the state, which is why in all regions there are special religious councils consisting solely of clergymen, where the latter are appointed by the local authorities, the chief rabbinate and the Ministry of Religious Affairs. The main functions of such councils are, as everywhere, the administration of religious services, but here, in addition to this, as, for example, in Poland, the religious council has the right to provide services related to acts of civil status. That is, the newlyweds do not go to the registry office, but to the temple, and there they receive a marriage certificate.
At the same time, Israel is a democratic state, and therefore numerous ethnic and religious groups have legal rights along with Jews. These are Muslim Arabs and Christian Arabs, Armenians, Bedouins, Druze, Samaritans and many others. Formally, there is no state religion, however, religion is not separated from the state. Judaism is not legislatively formalized in Israel, since there are disagreements in society regarding the relationship of religion to the state and its role in the state. This was written above. None of the religions existing in the country have a priority status. It is inherited as a legal system from British tradition.