Fern Reiss has a sound idea. Instead of punishing or incarcerating draft dodgers, the author suggests removing their voting rights, thus providing a powerful incentive to enlist, and also reducing the future political power of the Haredi parties. However this might well be overturned by the courts, so any law to this effect would have to be carefully crafted and might have to be defined as a basic law.
Neville Chute wrote a novel incorporating an interesting change on the same lines. In his novel he proposed a weighted voting system in which more weight was given to some voters, based on certain characteristics. He claimed, in the novel, that this resulted in better governance. Everyone had a vote but some peoples’ vote had greater weight than others.
This makes sense. For example at present we do not allow a 17 year old to vote, but give an 18 year old a full vote. Is this fair or logical? There are two reasons for modifying this; the human brain matures slowly, it probably only reaches its full potential at about 25; secondly youngsters, by definition, lack experience. Yes, we ask an 18 year old to risk his life by joining the IDF, so it makes sense that he has a say in how the country is run, but we would get a more thoughtful decision from someone older.
I would suggest that every citizen at 18 gets a vote, but at 40 gets an extra vote. Similarly one who has enlisted or served the state in some other way also gets an extra vote. Stable marriages are the basis of a stable society, so anyone who has remained married to the same partner for 30 years or more also gets an extra vote. Finally anyone whose tax bill in the year before an election exceeds 4 times the average is contributing more to the country so also gets an extra vote. This weighted voting system would force politicians to appeal to a more thoughtful electorate, and in addition would encourage Haredim to enlist as they should according to halacha.
This would also encourage Arabs and other non-Jews to contribute to the state as they should. Some already do and this should be recognised.
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