Party systems in Yisrael: Difference between revisions

Jump to navigation Jump to search
Line 13: Line 13:
The [[Constitutional Liberal Party|Constitutional Liberals]] won the newly-created [[Presidency of Yisrael|presidency]] and solid majorities in the [[Knesset]]. They also won a slew of newly-created or electorally reformed District and local offices. Between the early-to-late 1920s, the "Con-Libs," as they quickly became known colloquially, dominated national and provincial politics to such an extent that many seats where the Con-Libs nominated a candidate were considered {{wp|tantamount to election}}. The [[Royalist Conservative Party (Yisrael)|Royalist Conservatives]] were left to rural and {{wp|suburbs|outer-city}} jurisdictions and [[Factionalism_in_Yisrael#Politics|religious enclaves]]. As the two majority parties struggled to figure out the emerging two-party system, a number of more radical parties in the fringes erupted onto the urban scene, carving out a niche of non-mainstream ideologies and political dissent and agitation.  
The [[Constitutional Liberal Party|Constitutional Liberals]] won the newly-created [[Presidency of Yisrael|presidency]] and solid majorities in the [[Knesset]]. They also won a slew of newly-created or electorally reformed District and local offices. Between the early-to-late 1920s, the "Con-Libs," as they quickly became known colloquially, dominated national and provincial politics to such an extent that many seats where the Con-Libs nominated a candidate were considered {{wp|tantamount to election}}. The [[Royalist Conservative Party (Yisrael)|Royalist Conservatives]] were left to rural and {{wp|suburbs|outer-city}} jurisdictions and [[Factionalism_in_Yisrael#Politics|religious enclaves]]. As the two majority parties struggled to figure out the emerging two-party system, a number of more radical parties in the fringes erupted onto the urban scene, carving out a niche of non-mainstream ideologies and political dissent and agitation.  


However, by 1926, the Con-Libs began to face voter backlash at the local level, later leading to moderate losses of its overwhelming Knesset majority in the 1928 midterms to a new narrow margin of control. In 1930, the Conservatives won the presidency and a razor-thin majority in the Knesset.  
However, by 1926, the Con-Libs began to face voter backlash at the local level, later leading to moderate losses of its overwhelming Knesset majority in the 1928 midterms to a new, more narrow margin of control. In 1930, the Conservatives won the presidency and a razor-thin majority in the Knesset.  


The 1930s saw the see-sawing of the Knesset and presidency between the Con-Libs and Conservatives, battling over foreign-policy disagreements such as the [[Gran Aligonia|1932 installation of the Yisraeli protectorate over Gran Aligonia]], the [[Empire of Yisrael]] policy, and [[Sydalon-Yisrael relations|relations with Sydalon]] as well as new domestic issues, such as [[Chiloni-dati_divide_(Yisrael)#Secularity_v._Religiosity|the limits of secular expression in a constitutionally-mandated religious society]], the the political power of [[Monarchy of Yisrael|the monarch]] after the [[1920 Constitution|limits of 1920]], and the centralizing power of the [[Government of Yisrael]].  
The 1930s saw the see-sawing of the Knesset and presidency between the Con-Libs and Conservatives, battling over foreign-policy disagreements such as the [[Gran Aligonia|1932 installation of the Yisraeli protectorate over Gran Aligonia]], the [[Empire of Yisrael]] policy, and [[Sydalon-Yisrael relations|relations with Sydalon]] as well as new domestic issues, such as [[Chiloni-dati_divide_(Yisrael)#Secularity_v._Religiosity|the limits of secular expression in a constitutionally-mandated religious society]], the political power of [[Monarchy of Yisrael|the monarch]] after the [[1920 Constitution|limits of 1920]], and the centralizing power of the [[Government of Yisrael]].  


This era of politics ended with the eruption of the [[Third West Scipian War]] in 1941.  
This era of politics ended with the eruption of the [[Third West Scipian War]] in 1941.  

Revision as of 04:06, 24 December 2019

«»

Party strength in Yisrael refers to the level of representation of the various political parties of the Kingdom of Yisrael in each District-wide elective office providing legislators to the District and to the Royal Knesset and electing the executives at the District (District governor) and national (Presidential) level.

History

Political parties formally came into existence in the first years of the 1920 Constitution after the absolute monarchy was overthrown in the 1919 Revolution. Pre-revolutionary factions both favoring a modern, less-religious, constitutional monarchy and opposing such a vision manifested themselves into the Constitutional Liberal Party and the Royalist Conservative Party, respectively.

Party systems

The First Party System (1922-1941) emerged after the establishment of a constitutional order and the first general elections in 1922. The constitutional liberal victors of the 1919 revolution organized themselves into a powerful political organization, supported implicitly by the new modernizing monarch and the "spirit of 1919" over much of the populace. The defeated supporters of the fallen absolute monarchy and other political, religious, and other reactionaries unified into a single, albeit infighting-ridden platform.

The Constitutional Liberals won the newly-created presidency and solid majorities in the Knesset. They also won a slew of newly-created or electorally reformed District and local offices. Between the early-to-late 1920s, the "Con-Libs," as they quickly became known colloquially, dominated national and provincial politics to such an extent that many seats where the Con-Libs nominated a candidate were considered tantamount to election. The Royalist Conservatives were left to rural and outer-city jurisdictions and religious enclaves. As the two majority parties struggled to figure out the emerging two-party system, a number of more radical parties in the fringes erupted onto the urban scene, carving out a niche of non-mainstream ideologies and political dissent and agitation.

However, by 1926, the Con-Libs began to face voter backlash at the local level, later leading to moderate losses of its overwhelming Knesset majority in the 1928 midterms to a new, more narrow margin of control. In 1930, the Conservatives won the presidency and a razor-thin majority in the Knesset.

The 1930s saw the see-sawing of the Knesset and presidency between the Con-Libs and Conservatives, battling over foreign-policy disagreements such as the 1932 installation of the Yisraeli protectorate over Gran Aligonia, the Empire of Yisrael policy, and relations with Sydalon as well as new domestic issues, such as the limits of secular expression in a constitutionally-mandated religious society, the political power of the monarch after the limits of 1920, and the centralizing power of the Government of Yisrael.

This era of politics ended with the eruption of the Third West Scipian War in 1941.

The Second Party System (1951-1974) revived the two-party stystem that had lay dormant in the 1940s during the authoritarian single-party-state of the Autocracy era. The Constitutionalists, who won the three-way civil war in 1951 known as the Year of Blood, reconstituted the the two major parties, though the Conservatives were noticeably weaker as many of its members and supporters had joined or supported the Autocracy regime during the Long Pause. In addition, the moderate-liberal victory brought about a more politically relaxed attitude towards left-wing third-parties that were not associated with the leftist bloc during the civil war.

The old electoral bastions had shifted in many areas; the old rural strongholds of the right-wing Blues had been resettled by left-leaning urban liberals who sought to reclaim the agricultural lifestyle of the 1950s-era labor movement as well as a number of more conservative-aligned Yisraelis who moved for better employment to the cities during the reconstruction in the early 1950s. The Con-Libs subsequently performed well across a large swath of the countryside and parts of the largest cities and industrial areas, while the Conservatives fared better in the inner-suburbs and exurbs of the cities as well as more insular rural regions towards Yisrael's borders and coasts.

The 1950s and early 1960s saw the Con-Libs and their third-party liberal-left allies dominate the presidency and Knesset, but the Conservatives tended to do better in the District and local level. This coincided with a large national political project of devolution and decentralization of the Royal Government in Yerushalayim under the Con-Lib majorities as a backlash towards the centralist tendencies of the Autocracy era; favoring the Blues with increased political power in many areas of government closer to the people.

The Conservatives returned to national power briefly in the mid-1960s during the Fourth West Scipian War, but were ousted in 1966 during the debate over the Yarden peace process. The Conservatives made major gains in the 1970 midterms due to opposition to the peace process, and they won the presidency and Knesset in an realignment election in 1974-76, ending the Second Party System.

The Third Party System (1974-2019) is the recent most party system, which was characterized by the Conservatives dominating national politics for much of the next four decades, as Yisraeli society shifted rightward economically, politically, and religiously in the post-Yarden era. The Conservatives controlled the presidency and Knesset from the mid-1970s until to the early 1990s, when a handful of moderate triangulating Con-Libs won the presidency with single terms and narrow Knesset majorities for all or parts of their tenure. The momentum swung back towards the Blues in the late 2000s and early 2010s, seeing a fusion of political and religious conservatism, commonly called neoconservatism under Noah Feldman.

Many political historians and analysts have called the 2020 election another realignment wave and have begun to refer to contemporary politics as being in the Fourth Party System (2019 - present), with the collapse of the Constitutional Liberal Party into third-party status and its replacement by the Alternative for Yisrael-led United Center Bloc in the so-called "Centrist Revolt" of 2019-20 as the main competitor to the right-wing Conservatives.

Current party strength

Table of Yisraeli District party statistics as of February 2020

See also