Introduction to Special issue: Public policies in Israel

Introduction Raphael Cohen-Almagor General The Crisis of Governance: Government Instability and the Civil Service David Nachmias and Ori Arbel-Ganz Citizenship Education in Israel – A Jewish-Democratic State Orit Ichilov, Gavriel Salomon and Dan Inbar The Military-Political Complex: The IDF’s Influence over Policy towards the Palestinians Since 1987 Yoram Peri On the Need for A Constitution Meir Shamgar Institutions Presidency in Israel: Formal Authority and Personal Experience Yitzhak Navon The Government Gad Yaacobi The Knesset Naomi Chazan The Attorney General in Israel – A Delicate Balance of Powers and Responsibilities in a Jewish and Democratic State Elyakim Rubinstein Particularistic Considerations and the Absence of Strategic Assessment in the Israeli Public Administration: The Role of the State Comptroller Eliezer Goldberg The Press Council Raphael Cohen-Almagor Final Word Israeli Institutions at the Crossroads Raphael Cohen-Almagor Notes on Contributors Index

Israel Affairs, 2005

People who live in Israel say there is never adull moment; we always have action. Indeed, people yearn for some tranquility,for some peace of mind. This collection shows that life in Israel will continue to be interesting and challenging. Israel is ayoung democracy.Itisstill in the process of development and undoubtedly it will face further tests. The key factor for its success is its relationships with its neighbours. Security expenses exhaust at hird of Israel'sbudget, leaving insufficient resources for the development of other spheres. The constant security threat destroys the tourism industry and preempts external investments essential for economic growth. Unemployment continues to rise. Salaries are going down in real terms. Welfare benefits are cut. Taxes are high and continue to rise. Israel has the highest rate of taxes in the world, outside Scandinavia. During the past decade many industries and services were regressing, or closing down. High-tech industries experience what the rest of the world is experiencing. The only

Public Relations Review, 2009

As with the earlier downturn of the Great Depression, the current global economic crisis has revived direct government intervention in the marketplace. It has also stimulated wider contemporary debates on the role of government in financial markets that feature not just funding issues, but questions of regulation and social legitimacy, and a greater acknowledgement of distinctive national-international tensions rather than a converging consensus around continuing to deregulate a global market. This article seeks to provide historical perspectives to these debates by considering the role of government, with the involvement of public relations, during economic changes in Israel. It focuses on major campaigns in Israel around the roles, and inter-sector disputes, of three major sectors: agriculture during the first half of the 20th century; industrialization from the 1960s to the 1990s; and commerce and competition from the 1990s into the 21st century. The article tracks these three historical transformations as part of Israel's gradual shifting from a nation economy toward a global economy. It concludes that, in the present downturn, the Israeli experiences offer a reminder of the impact of communication campaigns, interwoven with national identity, on economic changes, and the potential for public relations strategies and tactics to have long-term effects.

Limitations on the voters' ability to influence policy and the Rule of Law in Israel are deeply embedded in the country's historical context. However, these constraints are increasingly acknowledged by society, leading to potential opportunities for reform. As awareness grows, the path to resolving these issues could emerge, and with strategic effort, the political process that opens these 'windows of opportunity' can be accelerated at a reasonable cost.

Master's Thesis, 2024

Various studies have examined diverse aspects of educational policy-making processes in Israel, sometimes pointing out that education legislation in Israel is lacking, partial, and outdated. Few cases of specific education laws have been directly examined. However, no research has comprehensively and currently established the factors contributing to this legislative deficit, which would enhance understanding of education legislation's role in shaping public policy in this field. This is surprising, given that the overall scope of legislation has not decreased over the years. And although education generates significant interest among voters and elected officials, there are other social policy areas with more extensive legislation compared to this field, as well as different countries where education legislation is more frequent and comprehensive than in Israel. The current work seeks to address this gap in the literature and present several key explanations for the absence of broader and more up-to-date legislation in education. The research question underlying this work is: What are the factors contributing to the limited role of legislation in shaping education policy in Israel?

2012

In recent years, Israel, like many other states around the world, has experienced a significant shift in the relationship between the civilian population and its political leadership. 1 This transformation is manifested in part in the reality that the status of elected officials has lost its luster, such that in the voters’ view leaders no longer embody the same professional and moral authority, 2 and in the public’s growing demand to have a voice in strategic decision making processes. The prevalent media commentary – and therefore also the broader public discourse – claims that the root of this phenomenon lies in the lower quality of the leadership, a function of “the decline of the generations.” However, as will be discussed below, logic dictates that this is not a question of the declining quality of the “human assembly line,” i.e., that somehow people who have the capacity of becoming great statespeople are no longer born. Rather, this is a phenomenon connected to a new, profou...

Syllabus, Department of Government, Harvard University, Spring 2021-2022, 2022

There are almost two hundred countries in the world. Less than ten percent of them are considered advanced liberal democracies. The political-economic regimes in the other ninety percent diverge from the liberal democratic models in different respects. Nevertheless, our knowledges knowledge in comparative political economy, is still based on the experience on the top ten precent countries. The purpose of the course provides students with a glimpse on the "hidden rationalities" (Hirschman) of small and middle-sized (S&MS), semi-peripheral and "young" economies from their own perspectives. Rather than studying them as deformed replicates of advanced liberal democracies, we will seek to understand them from their own perspective.

This Policy Paper outlines a plan for reshaping the daily reality and guaranteeing the vital interests of the State of Israel. The plan calls for a proactive separation in two stages, which will enable a resumption of negotiations with the Palestinians in the future. The document presents the principles of the plan and a detailed map. Their adoption by the Israeli leadership with broad public support will require a well-organized, sustained effort. The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute initiated the research presented here as part of its efforts to enrich, deepen and enhance the public debate on central issues on the national agenda in Israel. This document is a draft for comment, critique and public discussion. It does not reflect a political position adopted by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, its directors or employees.

The aim of this article is to provide an overview o f the principal reform issues in Israel; privatization, public budgeting and the Civil Servi ce, followed by a proposal for overall reform in public management. Nearly sixty years after its inc eption, the State of Israel still lacks effective public management, in terms of structure, modes of operation and division of labor between the political and administrative echelons. The instabil ity of the political system in recent years undermines the functioning of public management institutions, especially the Civil Service. Moreover, the penetration of political behavioral p atterns into administrative decision making processes may be discerned as well. In lieu of the increased influence of professional priorities on political decisions, we are witness to rising "poli ticization" of management considerations, in the form of aggressive negotiations and ineffective com promises. This phenomenon is apparent throughout the non-p...