Monday, April 24, 2006

The largest government ever in Israel 27+ ministers

It is pretty clear from all reports that the new government will have 27+ ministers (7 out of 19 Labor MK's are going to be Ministers!). This is another symptom of a failing system, 27+ ministers in the government with at least 4 of them being Ministers without Portfolio is a very overblown government. In addition, there are a whole host of Deputy Ministers. Remember, this is out of only 120 members of Parliament, meaning that over 1/4 of the MK's are ministers or Deputy Ministers.

Not only does this cost a fortune, it is creates a very inefficient unwieldy government where it is very hard to get anything done. The ministries have turned into money machines where every ministry gets a budget that the minister has control over.

If we look around the world we can compare Israel to other democracies
  • Australia - 16 Ministers

  • Denmark - 20 Ministers

  • Finland - 17 Ministers

  • France - 16 Ministers

  • Germany - 15 Ministers

  • Japan - 17 Ministers

  • Norway - 18 Ministers

  • Sweden - 10 Ministers

  • United Kingdom - 22 Ministers

  • United States - 15 Ministers


Given the small population and size of Israel in comparison to most of these other countries, we can see that 27 ministers is way out of line.

This is more proof that the system in Israel is completely broken and needs to be fixed badly. I offered a suggestion a while back The electoral system in Israel is broken ... on some possible reforms. It is clear that something needs to be done, unfortunately, given the current makeup of the government I am very pessimistic that anything will be done.

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