The Israeli legislative system is defined by a single-chamber parliament known as the Knesset, which holds 120 seats. Members are elected to serve four-year terms, though early elections are a frequent occurrence in the nation's political history. The system operates on a proportional representation model, meaning that political parties are awarded seats in the Knesset based on the percentage of the total national vote they receive.

To prevent excessive fragmentation of the legislature, Israel employs an electoral threshold. Parties must secure a minimum percentage of the total vote in order to qualify for any seats at all. This threshold has been adjusted over time, forcing smaller parties to either merge or risk being excluded from the parliament entirely. Because it is rare for a single party to win an outright majority of 61 seats, the formation of a government almost always requires the creation of a coalition. These coalitions are built through negotiations between parties, which often leads to complex power-sharing agreements. While the system ensures that a wide variety of political viewpoints are represented, it also creates a high degree of dependency between coalition partners, often leading to political instability if one party chooses to withdraw its support.