Episode Details

Israel's political system keeps producing splinter parties and unstable coalitions — but raising the electoral threshold alone didn't fix it. This episode examines what other democracies have actually done to balance representation with governability. From Germany's five percent threshold with its basic mandate clause to Turkey's ten percent wall that parties simply routed around, we explore the structural choices that shape how well a democracy works. The key insight: thresholds are blunt instruments, and the countries that made them work paired them with district representation, pre-election coalition rules, or escape valves for regional minorities.