Israel: Politics and Society

Transcription

1 Syllabus Israel: Politics and Society Last update HU Credits: 4 Degree/Cycle: 1st degree (Bachelor) and 2nd degree (Master) Responsible Department: Israel Studies: Society and Politics Academic year: 1 Semester: 1st Semester Teaching Languages: English Campus: Mt. Scopus Course/Module Coordinator: Gideon Rahat Coordinator msgrah@mail.huji.ac.il Coordinator Office Hours: Wednsday 10:15-11:30 room 4324 Social Sciences Teaching Staff: Prof Gideon Rahat page 1 / 9

2 Course/Module description: An Introductory course that provides the foundations for understanding Israeli politics by analyzing Israeli society, political institutions and political behavior. Course/Module aims: To analyze the properties of the Israeli regime, the main cleavages in Israeli society, the major political institutions, and several main social and behavioral features. Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to: List the main cleavages in Israeli Society and their political implications. Identify the main political institutions in Israel and analyze their role. Identify some of the main properties of Israeli political culture and patterns of political behavior in Israel Define the character of Israeli democracy Compare between Israeli politics and politics in other countries. Attendance requirements(%): 100% Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: lecture Course/Module Content: The course outlines the main characteristics of Israeli politics and society and the relationship between them. The introductory part presents a general background and examines the debate concerning Israels democracy. The second part describes and analyzes the main cleavages in Israeli society: Jewish- Arab/Palestinian, religious-secular, Ashkenazi-Sepharadi, new immigrants-veteran immigrants/sabre, Doves-Hawks and the socio economic cleavage. The next part inspects Israels political institutions: the three branches of government; the electoral system; the political parties and the party system; and interest groups. We will then turn to examine some of the main social and behavioral features of Israeli democracy: political culture; electoral behavior; religion and politics; and gender politics. The course concludes with a discussion on whether Israeli politics and page 2 / 9

3 society are comparable to other democracies, or whether Israel is unique. 1. Introduction: The Israeli Political System 2. Democracy in Israel Israeli Society: Social Cleavages in Israel 3. Introduction: Social Cleavages in Israel 4. The Jewish/Arab-Palestinian Cleavage 5. The Intra-Jewish Communal Cleavage 6. The Religous-Secular Cleavage 7. The Cleavage between New Immigrants and Veteran Immigrants/Natives 8. Social Cleavages: A Summary Political Institutions 9. The Executive Branch 10. The Legislative Branch 11. The Constitutional Setting 12. The Judicial Branch 13. The Electoral System 14. Political Parties 15. Party System 16. Interest Groups Selected Issues 17. Political Culture and Electoral Behavior page 3 / 9

4 18. Religion and Politics 19. Gender Politics 20. Are Israeli Politics and Society Comparable or Unique? Required Reading: 1. Introduction: The Israeli Political System Rowman & Littlefield, 2011, (1a) Dan Horowitz and Moshe Lissak. Origins of the Israeli Polity. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1978, chapter 8, The State of Israel and the Political Heritage of the Yishuv, pp E H Democracy in Israel (2a) Sammy Smooha. Ethnic Democracy: Israel as an Archetype. Israel Studies, vol. 2, no. 2, 1997, pp ERESERVE (2b) Alan Dowty. Is Israel Democratic? Substance and Semantics in the Ethnic Democracy Debate, Israel Studies, vol. 4, no. 2, 1999, pp ERESERVE Israeli Society: Social Cleavages in Israel 3. Introduction: Social Cleavages in Israel Rowman & Littlefield, 2011, (3a) Dan Horowitz and Moshe Lissak. Trouble in Utopia: The Overburdened Polity of Israel. Albany: SUNY Press, 1989, Chapter 2, Israel as a Multi-Cleavage Society, pp E329 H The Jewish/Arab-Palestinian Cleavage (4a) Majid Al-Haj. The Status of Palestinians in Israel: A Double Periphery in an page 4 / 9

5 Ethno-National State, in Alan Dowty (ed), Critical Issues in Israeli Society. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2004, pp E320.9 D The Intra-Jewish Communal Cleavage (5a) Alan Dowty. The Jewish State: A Century Later. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998, Chapter 7 The Communal Split,, pp E320.9 D The Religous-Secular Cleavage (6a) Asher Cohen. Chnages in the Orthodox Camp and their Influence on the Deepening Religious-Secular Schism at the outset of the Twenty First Century, in Alan Dowty (ed), Critical Issues in Israeli Society. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2004, pp ERESERVE The Cleavage between New Immigrants and Veteran Immigrants/Natives (7a) Zvi Gitelman. The Russian Revolution, in Alan Dowty (ed), Critical Issues in Israeli Society. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2004, pp E320.9 D Social Cleavages: A Summary (8a) Arend Lijphart, Peter Bowman and Reuven Hazan. Party Systems and Issue Dimensions: Israel and Thirty-Five Other Old and New Democracies Compared, in Reuven Hazan and Moshe Maor (eds.), Parties, Elections and Cleavages: Israel in Comparative and Theoretical Perspective. London: Frank Cass, 2000, pp E329 H428 Political Institutions 9. The Executive Branch Rowman & Littlefield, 2011, , , (9a) Basic Law: The President of the State (9b) Basic Law: The Government (9c) Kenig, Ofer and Shlomit Barnea. The Selection of Ministers in Israel: Is the Prime Minister A Master of His Domain? Israel Affairs, vol. 15, no. 3, 2009, pp. page 5 / 9

6 E-JOURNAL (9d) Yitzhak Navon. Presidency in Israel: Formal Authority and Personal Experience, Israel Affairs, vol.11, no.2, 2005, pp ERESERVE The Legislative Branch Rowman & Littlefield, 2011, (10a) Basic Law: The Knesset (10b) Chazan, Naomi. The Knesset, Israel Affairs, vol.11, no. 2, 2005, pp ERESERVE The Constitutional Setting Rowman & Littlefield, 2011, (11a) Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty (11b) Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation (11c) The Existing Basic Laws: Summary (11d) Gutmann, Emanuel. "Israel: Democracy Without a Constitution," in Vernon Bogdanor (ed.), Constitutions in Democratic Politics. Aldershot: Gower, 1988, pp ERESERVE The Judicial Branch Rowman & Littlefield, 2011, (12a) Basic Law: The Judiciary (12b) Menachem Hofnung, The Unintended Consequences of Unplanned page 6 / 9

7 Constitutional Reform: Constitutional Politics in Israel, The American Journal of Comparative Law, vol. 44, 1996, pp, E-JOURNAL (12c) Aharon Barak, The Role of the [Israeli] Supreme Court in a Democracy, Israel Studies; vol. 3, no. 2, 1998, pp E-JOURNAL (12d) Dan Avnon, The Israeli Basic Laws (Potentially) Fatal Flaw, Israel Law Review, vol. 32, no. 4, 1998, pp ERESERVE (12e) Oren Soffer. Judicial Review of Legislation in Israel: Problems and Implications of Possible Reform, Israel Affairs, Vol.12, No.2, 2006, pp ERESERVE The Electoral System Rowman & Littlefield, 2011, (13a) Gideon Rahat and Reuven Y. Hazan. Israel: The Politics of an Extreme Electoral System, in Michael Gallagher and Paul Mitchell (eds.), The Politics of Electoral Systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp ERESERVE Political Parties Rowman & Littlefield, 2011, (14a) Itzhak Galnoor. Steering the Polity. London: Sage, 1982, chapter 5, Channels: The Political Parties, pp E G Party System (15a) Reuven Hazan, Party System Change in Israel, : A Conceptual and Theoretical Border-Stretching of Europe? In Paul Pennings and Jan-Erik Lane (eds.), Comparing Party System Change. London: Routledge, 1998, pp ERESERVE Interest Groups Rowman & Littlefield, 2011, (16a) Yael Yishai. Civil Society in Transition: Interest Politics in Israel, The Annals page 7 / 9

8 of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 555, 1998, pp ERESERVE (16b) Zalmanovitch, Yair. "Transitions in Israels Policymaking Network," The Annals of the American Academy, vol. 555, 1998, pp ERESERVE Selected Issues 17. Political Culture and Electoral Behavior Rowman & Littlefield, 2011, (17a) Uri Ram, Citizens, Consumers and Believers: the Israeli Public Sphere Between Capitalism and Fundamentalism, Israel Studies vol. 3, no 1, 1998, pp ERESERVE (17b) Michal Shamir and Asher Arian, Collective Identity and Electoral Competition in Israel, American Political Science Review, vol. 93, no. 2, 1999, pp ERESERVE Religion and Politics (18a) Benyamin Neuberger. Religion and State in Europe and Israel, in Reuven Hazan and Moshe Maor (eds.) Parties, Elections and Cleavages: Israel in Comparative and Theoretical Perspective. London: Frank Cass, 2000, pp E329 H428 (18b) Eliezer Don-Yehiya. Conflict Management of Religious Issues: The Israeli Case in a Comparative Perspective, in Reuven Hazan and Moshe Maor (eds.) Parties, Elections and Cleavages: Israel in Comparative and Theoretical Perspective. London: Frank Cass, 2000, pp E329 H428 (18c) Reuven Hazan.Religion and Politics in Israel: The Rise and Fall of the Consociational Model, in Reuven Hazan and Moshe Maor (eds.) Parties, Elections and Cleavages: Israel in Comparative and Theoretical Perspective. London: Frank Cass, 2000, pp E329 H Gender Politics (19a) Gershon Shafir and Yoav Peled. Being Israeli. Cambridge: Cambrideg University Press, 2002, pp E S525 (19b) Hanna Herzog, Homefront and Battlefront: The status of Jewish and Palestinian Women in Israel, Israel Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, 1998, pp page 8 / 9

9 Powered by TCPDF ( ERESERVE (19c) Frances Raday. Womens Human Rights: Dichotomy between Religion and Secularism in Israel Israel Affairs, Volume 11, Number 1, ERESERVE Are Israeli Politics and Society Comparable or Unique? (20a) Michael Barnett, The Politics of Uniqueness: The Status of the Israeli Case, in Michael Barnett (ed.), Israel in Comparative Perspective: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom. Albany: SUNY Press, 1996, pp E320.9 B261 (20b) Yehezkel Dror, On the Uniqueness of Israel: Multiple Readings; in Michael Barnett (ed.), Israel in Comparative Perspective: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom. Albany: SUNY Press, 1996, pp E320.9 B261 (20c) Ira Sharkansky, The Promised Land of the Chosen People is not all that Distinctive: On the Value of Comparison; in David Levi-Faur, Gabriel Sheffer and David Vogel (eds.), Israel: Dynamics of Change and Continuity. London: Frank Cass, 1999, pp ERESERVE Additional Reading Material: none Course/Module evaluation: End of year written/oral examination 90 % Presentation 0 % Participation in Tutorials 10 % Project work 0 % Assignments 0 % Reports 0 % Research project 0 % Quizzes 0 % Other 0 % Additional information: The final version would appear about a week before the course starts page 9 / 9