Government formation and policy making : formation of the 1977 coalition in Israel

Though government formation is a phenomenon that has recently received considerable attention by students of the political process, its implications for the development of public policy have by and large been ignored. Most scholars have instead studied the formation process in isolation, developing predictive theories of government formation focusing on how actors select their coalition partners. Similarly, a number of theories of policy making have been developed which examine the policy process in a strictly legalistic or institutional fashion, ignoring the possibility of policy being developed in, and affected by, the government formation arena. The primary purpose of this study was to provide a means to specify the components of the process and describe their interrelationships, particularly with respect to the formulation of public policy.

A case study of one Israeli government formation was used to illustrate the importance of policy debate and formulation in constructing a government. The formation of the Begin-led Likud government of 1977 involved intense discussions of major legislative issues; issues which required attention and some degree of resolution before the maintenance phase of the coalition process could be resumed.

The major finding of this research was that the governmental process in Israel operates on the basis of a consensus that is established with the formation of a government. Actors negotiate what are often highly divergent issue positions and ultimately reach a consensus on the major lines of action to be pursued by the new government. Finally, the data suggest that it is much more than a "paper consensus," at least in many cases. Actors often pressure for implementation of the agreements struck in the formation process, and in certain instances, legislative action occurs. As such, the stability of the government may depend on these actors' perceptions of their fate vis-a-vis the agreement.