Israel: the form of government and administrative structure

In the number of modern states on 14.05.1948, Israel entered as well. The form of government here is a parliamentary republic. This unitary country was founded by the UN resolution in November 1947, when the English mandate for Palestine was abolished, the territory of which was divided into two independent states, Arab and Jewish.

Government structure

Israel, whose form of government and state structure represent a unitary type, is administratively divided into six districts. The system of power is unique here. Since 1996, this country is the only one in the world where the president is elected by the parliament, and the prime minister is elected publicly, 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 of it, there are separate so-called Basic laws. From 1955 to 1988, the Knesset (the so-called parliament) adopted nine such legal acts - the Knesset, the land, 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 quite costly in nine laws.

Laws

The difference between the Basic Laws and the Constitution is that under no circumstances can they be suspended, changed by regulations, even in the most extreme situations. The law contains some articles, called "fortified", in which you can make changes, but this is incredibly difficult. For this, Israel, whose form of government requires not just consent, but the votes of the absolute majority of Knesset members, conducts long and exhausting voting procedures. So it was once, when the question arose about holding parliamentary elections under another, proportional scheme.

For a long time, the laws were not replenished, only in 1992 two new ones were adopted. These are the Basic Laws on Freedom of Occupation and on Human Dignity. The first was long finalized and in the final edition was released only in 1994, now it is fully fortified. In the last decade, other laws were enacted, but they did not become the Basic ones, although they could be attributed to them in content. The form of government in Israel is becoming more democratic.

The reasons for the absence of the Constitution

In this country there are two concepts in the vision of forms of government, precisely because the parties do not stop the confrontation and can not in any way lead two different worldviews to a common denominator. There are supporters of the concept of secular rule, which advocate the adoption of the Constitution, and their opponents - theocrats - deny the need for another body of laws, except the Torah. The question of the role of religion is acute, therefore the form of government in Israel differs significantly from other countries.

Parliament - The Knesset - unicameral, consists of one hundred and twenty deputies elected for four years. All legislative power is concentrated in his hands. Here there is a suffrage and a system of proportional representation. Until 1996, the prime minister was elected by the ruling party, subsequently the elections to the Knesset began to coincide with direct elections of the chief figure of the state. At the same time, the Prime Minister received the privilege to dissolve the Knesset if he saw that the majority of deputies were oppositional to him. This is the form of state. Board. Israel in this issue ahead of the whole planet.

Power

Legislative power is not limited to anything, the veto laws already passed can not be imposed, they are not annulled even by the Supreme Court. The Knesset also has broad powers to guide and oversee the government and its actions. This exists in other countries, but not in all, depending on what form of government.

In Israel everything was done to ensure that the laws can not be fooled. The Knesset approves the budget, controls the entire activity of the government with the help of deputy requests to the ministries, it also conducts parliamentary investigations. The Knesset has the right to resign the government if it demonstrates a no-confidence motion.

Parliament and Government

The form of state government in Israel was borrowed from the British model, where the legislative initiative is carried out mainly by the government. Every law can be passed by the majority of the deputies present (by the way, absolutely any number of them is a quorum).

Exceptions are laws that modify the electoral system or concern the Basic Laws. In these cases, you need an absolute majority, determined according to 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, issued in 1964. More than two terms in a row, the president does not have the right to work. However, he is practically nominal face, performs ceremonial functions and has no political weight in the country.

The powers of the president are executed on the recommendations of state ministers: he signs all agreements that the Knesset has already ratified, as well as laws that do not concern his authority.

Here is a form of government, Israel, nevertheless, is considered a presidential republic. In other countries, presidents have the right of veto, the Israeli president does not. He can appoint diplomatic representatives and accept credentials, but 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 stand for one or more parties that have at least ten seats in the Knesset or collect fifty thousand signatures.

A candidate for prime ministers can not be younger than thirty, and must lead the party list. More than two years at the post of prime minister, no one can hold. The head of government actually directs both the foreign and domestic policies of the state, but all the important decisions must be approved by the Knesset in advance.

Vote of no confidence

This is the form of government in Israel at the present time. With the approval of the Knesset, the Prime Minister may appoint or dismiss a member of the government. However, the government is also accountable to the parliament. If a no-confidence motion is taken, only sixty-one votes in excess of the majority is enough to make this act deemed accomplished.

Then elections are held again - and the Knesset, and the Prime Minister. The Knesset, in order to declare a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister, it is necessary to get a majority of eighty-one votes, and to shift it for, for example, a moral and ethical offense, you need an ordinary 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 here there are features of both continental (Romano-Germanic) and Anglo-Saxon law. In addition, two absolutely different systems of religious law - Muslim and Jewish, that are widely used within confessions, which can not reconcile Israel in any way - are also influencing here. 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 right of the Ottoman Empire existed. The foundations of this right, which operated in Palestine, are also made up of sources of different origins. For the right of ownership, the norms of Islamic law (Hanafi school) set out in the Majallah code were in effect. Family-marriage relations and inheritance rights were treated with un-codified Islamic law, and the sphere of trade was governed by laws that the Turks learned from French sources.

England

In 1922 Britain received the mandate of the League of Nations, thanks to which, until 1947, she ruled Palestine. At the same time, a decree was issued, according to which all the courts of this territory continued to apply the legislation of the Ottoman state in full - both those that operated before February 1914, and laws issued later, and legal acts that were accepted by the authorities of Palestine.

There was also the usual colonial practice - the courts were empowered in the absence of the necessary rules in the law to proceed on the basis of postulates of common law and justice. Thus, English law was gradually ousting the Franco-Ottoman rule . And drove out.

Laws of Israel

When thousands of Jews poured into Palestine, Jewish religious law tried to preserve all others, because the decree left in force the existing laws that do not contradict the declaration of independence and those laws that will subsequently be adopted by the Knesset. This process is still in operation, as the laws of the Ottoman Empire and many of the laws of mandate time still exist.

For years, on the basis of the decisions of the Supreme Court, a special code on civil rights - a case law: freedom of assembly, speech, religion, equality before the law, was formed. Israel can be deservedly proud of these values. The form of government and the state structure of the country made it possible to make laws effective, despite their mixed nature.

State Comptroller

There is one more post, approved in 1949, to ensure the responsibility of the state power to the society. This is the State Comptroller - the highest control body, which has a form of government. Israel instructs the State Comptroller to verify the legality, economy, efficiency, even ethical aspects in the actions of the administration and all officials.

Since 1971, the State Comptroller has been assigned 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, access is unlimited. He checks ministries, state institutions, defense infrastructure, any local and state authorities, government corporations, state enterprises, in short, everything, up 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 exclusively of clergymen, to which the latter are appointed by local authorities, the chief rabbinate and the ministry for religious affairs. The main functions of such councils are, as everywhere else, the performance of religious services, but here, in addition, as in Poland, for example, the religious council has the right to provide services related to acts of civil status. That is, the newlyweds are not going to the registry office, but to the temple, where they receive a marriage certificate.

At the same time, Israel is a democratic state, and therefore the legal rights on a par with Jews have numerous ethnic and religious groups. These are Arab Muslims and Arab Christians, Armenians, Bedouins, Druze, Samaritans and many others. Formally, there is no state religion, but religion is not separated from the state either. Judaism is not legally established in Israel, because there are disagreements in the society about the relationship of religion to the state and its role in the state. This was written above. None of the existing religions in the country has a predominant status. It is inherited as a legal system from the British tradition.