New Article: Renshon et al, Paired Experiments on the Israeli Knesset and Public

Renshon, Jonathan, Keren Yarhi-Milo, and Joshua D. Kertzer. “Democratic Leaders, Crises and War. Paired Experiments on the Israeli Knesset and Public.” (online paper).

 

URL: http://jonathanrenshon.com/Site/CurrentResearch_files/DemocraciesWarCrises030216.pdf (PDF)

 

Abstract

IR theorists have focused in recent years on how and whether regime type affects conflict, and in particular on whether democracies have advantages over other types of states in either “contests of will” or war-fighting. Despite the remarkable amount of attention paid, the inherent limits of observational data – even with improved methods and newly-developed datasets – have prevented the formation of any consensus. We contend that one missing piece of the puzzle is direct evidence on a key aspect of theories of democratic credibility and success: the beliefs of leaders. To address this, we present evidence from a survey experiment fielded on a unique elite sample: current and former members of the Israeli Knesset. From them, we learn that Israeli leaders’ patterns of beliefs accord with some interpretations of bargaining theory: they see democracies as both more likely to back down in a crisis, but also more likely to emerge victorious should a dispute escalate to war. We also field our study on two representative samples of the Israeli Jewish public, giving us leverage to address the question of how similar leaders are to the public they represent, and the mechanisms through which democracy shapes beliefs about crisis behavior and war outcomes. Here, we find support for the notion that (at least in some cases), experiments on \the average citizen” generalize nicely to elites.

 

 

 

New Article: Hameiri et al, Support for Self-Censorship Among Israelis

Hameiri, Boaz, Keren Sharvit, Daniel Bar-Tal, Eldad Shahar, and Eran Halperin. “Support for Self-Censorship Among Israelis as a Barrier to Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” Political Psychology (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/pops.12346

 
Abstract

Self-censorship, defined as an “act of intentionally and voluntarily withholding information from others in the absence of formal obstacles” often serves as a barrier to resolving intractable conflicts. Specifically, in order to protect the group, and in absence of objective constraints such as institutionalized censorship, individuals practice self-censorship and support its practice by other society members. This prevents free flow and transparency of information, within a society, regarding the conflict and the adversary. In an attempt to investigate the factors that contribute to the functioning of self-censorship as a sociopsychological barrier to conflict resolution, a longitudinal study was conducted among a large sample of Jews in Israel. The survey was administered in three waves: a few months before, during, and a few months after Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense in the Gaza Strip. The findings showed that armed confrontation can increase support for self-censorship. In addition, the findings revealed that personal characteristics (e.g., authoritarianism, ethnocentrism, siege mentality) predicted support for self-censorship, which, in turn, mediated the effect of personal characteristics on support for negotiations and for providing humanitarian aid. The theoretical as well as the applied implications of the findings are discussed.

 

 

New Article: Peffley et al, The Impact of Persistent Terrorism on Political Tolerance

Peffley, Mark, Marc L. Hutchison, and Michal Shamir. “The Impact of Persistent Terrorism on Political Tolerance: Israel, 1980 to 2011.” American Political Science Review 109.4 (2015): 817-32.

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URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003055415000441

 

Abstract

How do persistent terrorist attacks influence political tolerance, a willingness to extend basic liberties to one’s enemies? Studies in the U.S. and elsewhere have produced a number of valuable insights into how citizens respond to singular, massive attacks like 9/11. But they are less useful for evaluating how chronic and persistent terrorist attacks erode support for democratic values over the long haul. Our study focuses on political tolerance levels in Israel across a turbulent 30-year period, from 1980 to 2011, which allows us to distinguish the short-term impact of hundreds of terrorist attacks from the long-term influence of democratic longevity on political tolerance. We find that the corrosive influence of terrorism on political tolerance is much more powerful among Israelis who identify with the Right, who have also become much more sensitive to terrorism over time. We discuss the implications of our findings for other democracies under threat from terrorism.

 

 

 

Encyclopedia Article: Peled, Ethnic Democracy

Peled, Yoav. “Ethnic Democracy.” The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism Chichester: Wiley, 2016.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118663202.wberen381

Extract

Ethnic democracy is an analytic model meant to describe a form of state that combines majoritarian electoral procedures and respect for the rule of law and individual citizenship rights with the institutionalized dominance of a majority ethnic group over a society. Ethnic democracy consists of two incompatible constitutional principles: liberal democracy, which mandates equal protection of all citizens, and ethnonationalism, which privileges the core ethnic group. Critics of the model have pointed out that the tension between these two contradictory principles causes inherent instability in this form of state. This tension could be overcome, however, and ethnic democracy could be stabilized, if a third constitutional principle, mediating between liberal democracy and ethnic nationalism, were to exist in the political culture.

 

 

 

New Book: Pardo, Normative Power Europe Meets Israel

Pardo, Sharon. Normative Power Europe Meets Israel: Perceptions and Realities. Lanham and Boulder: Lexington Books, 2015.

 

0739195662

 

The book draws on some of the scholarship in perception studies and “Normative Power Europe” theory. The study of perceptions, although dating back to the mid-1970s, is gaining renewed currency in recent years both in international relations, in general, and in European Union studies, in particular. And yet, despite the significance of external perceptions of the European Union, there is still a lack of theoretical forays into this area as well as an absence of empirical investigations of actual external role conceptions. These lacunae in scholarly work are significant, since how the European Union is perceived outside its borders, and what factors shape these perceptions, are crucial for deepening the theory of “Normative Power Europe.” The book analyzes Israeli perceptions towards “Normative Power Europe,” the European Union, and NATO through five themes that, the book argues, underscore different dimensions of key Israeli conceptions of “Normative Power Europe” and NATO. The book seeks to contribute to the existing research on the European Union’s role as a “normative power,” the Union’s external representations, and on Israeli-European Union relations more broadly.

 

Table of Contents

  • Introduction: Normative Power Europe Meets Israel
  • Chapter 1: Normative Power Europe in Israeli Eyes
  • Chapter 2: The Seventh Would-Be Member State of the European Economic Community
  • Chapter 3: Normative Power Europe and Perceptions as Cultural Filters: Israeli Civic Studies as a Case-Study, with Natalia Chaban
  • Chapter 4: When a Lioness Roars: The Union’s Guidelines Prohibiting the Allocation of Funds to Israeli Entities in the Occupied Territories
  • Chapter 5: An Elusive Desire: Israeli Perceptions of NATO
  • Conclusion: Normative Power Europe as Israel’s Negative “Other”

Sharon Pardo is Jean Monnet chair ad personam in European studies in the Department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
 

New Book: Kotef, Movement and the Ordering of Freedom

Kotef, Hagar. Movement and the Ordering of Freedom: On Liberal Governances of Mobility. Durham: Duke University Press, 2015.

 

978-0-8223-5843-5-frontcover

We live within political systems that increasingly seek to control movement, organized around both the desire and ability to determine who is permitted to enter what sorts of spaces, from gated communities to nation-states. In Movement and the Ordering of Freedom, Hagar Kotef examines the roles of mobility and immobility in the history of political thought and the structuring of political spaces. Ranging from the writings of Locke, Hobbes, and Mill to the sophisticated technologies of control that circumscribe the lives of Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank, this book shows how concepts of freedom, security, and violence take form and find justification via “regimes of movement.” Kotef traces contemporary structures of global (im)mobility and resistance to the schism in liberal political theory, which embodied the idea of “liberty” in movement while simultaneously regulating mobility according to a racial, classed, and gendered matrix of exclusions.

 

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements

    • Introduction
    • 1. Between Imaginary Lines: Violence and Its Justifications at the Military Checkpoints in Occupied Palestine / Hagar Kotef and Merav Amir
    • 2. An Interlude: A Tale of Two Roads—On Freedom and Movement
    • 3. The Fence That “Ill Deserves the Name of Confinement”: Locomotion and the Liberal Body
    • 4. The Problem of “Excessive” Movement
    • 5. The “Substance and Meaning of All Things Political”: On Other Bodies
    • Conclusion

Notes
Bibliography
Index

 

HAGAR KOTEF is based at the Minerva Humanities Center at Tel Aviv University.

 

 

New Article: Sen | Ethnocracy, Israel and India

Sen, Satadru. “Ethnocracy, Israel and India.” History and Sociology of South Asia 9.2 (2015): 107-25.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2230807515572211

 

Abstract

This articles examines majoritarianism, democracy and the status of minorities in Israel and India comparatively, using the concept of ethnocracy as an analytical frame. It argues that whereas the overt racialisation of ethnicity in Israel has produced an intractable problem, solutions may be found in India through the creative deployment of the history of modern Hindu identity, and even through the Israeli notion of binationality.

New Article: Weinblum, Disqualifying Political Parties and ‘Defending Democracy’ in Israel

Weinblum, Sharon. “Disqualifying Political Parties and ‘Defending Democracy’ in Israel.” Constellations 22.2 (2015): 314-25.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8675.12161

 

Extract

In conclusion, the articulation of the democratic dilemma in the Israeli judicial and political arena has been revealed to be much more than a theoretical or institutional discussion. During the course of the various debates, which ultimately recognized the need to disqualify political parties, defensive democracy has imposed itself as a new regime of truth delimiting what is legitimate and what is not in the matter of party representation in a democracy. This dominant discourse has not only led to the institutionalization of limits on political participation by legitimizing the passing of the amendments studied above, but has significantly transformed the accepted meaning of democracy, its identity and boundaries. The construction of a narrative according to which democracy would have to defend itself against enemies has conferred a meaning to democracy that largely differs from the original model of democracy, as defined by the Israeli discourse itself. By “defending itself,” the Israeli democracy has been transformed into a regime in which democratic rights have become a conditional attribute of the nation-state, ready to be sacrificed in the name of the latter’s survival and where allegedly suspicious citizens can be excluded from the polity. Under those circumstances, the room for substantial — rather than formal — pluralism has itself become considerably limited.

 

ToC: Israel Studies Review 30.1 (2015)

 

 

Israel Studies Review, Volume 30, Issue 1, Table of Contents:

Editors’ Note

Editors’ Note
pp. v-vii(3)

Articles

Mapai’s Bolshevist Image: A Critical Analysis
pp. 1-19(19)
Bareli, Avi

 
Men and Boys: Representations of Israeli Combat Soldiers in the Media
pp. 66-85(20)
Israeli, Zipi; Rosman-Stollman, Elisheva
 

Review Essay

Book Reviews

Book Reviews
pp. 144-163(20)

 

New Article: Heller, Jabotinsky’s Youth Politics and the Case for Authoritarian Leadership

Heller, Daniel Kupfert. “Obedient Children and Reckless Rebels: Jabotinsky’s Youth Politics and the Case for Authoritarian Leadership, 1931–1933.” Journal of Israeli History (early view, online first).

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13531042.2015.1005819

 

Abstract

This article traces the pivotal role that ideas about “youth” and “generationhood” played in Vladimir Jabotinsky’s political strategy as leader of the Union of Revisionist Zionists and its youth movement, Brit Yosef Trumpeldor (Betar). During the leadership struggle within the movement between 1931 and 1933, Jabotinsky believed that he could draw upon debates sweeping across Europe about the nature of youth, their role in politics, and the challenges of “generational conflict” in order to convince his followers that his increasingly authoritarian behavior was the only mode of leadership available to Zionist leaders in the 1930s. The article demonstrates that Jabotinsky’s deliberately ambiguous and provocative constructions of “youth” and “generationhood” within the movement’s party literature and in articles addressed to the Polish Jewish public, as well as the innovative ways in which he delimited “youth” from “adult” in his movement’s regulations, allowed him to further embrace authoritarian measures within the movement without publicly abandoning his claim to be a firm proponent of democracy.

 

Reviews: Allen, The Rise and Fall of Human Rights

Allen, Lori. The Rise and Fall of Human Rights. Cynicism and Politics in Occupied Palestine, Stanford Studies in Human Rights. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013.

 

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Reviews:

  • Wright, Fiona. “Review.” Journal of Legal Anthropology 1.3 (2013): 396-398.
  • Seidel, Timothy. “ReviewH-Net Reviews, February 2014.
  • Barbosa, Gustavo. “Review.” Critique of Anthropology 34.3 (2014): 372-374.
  • Hurwitz, Deena R. “Review.” Middle East Journal 68.1 (2014): 173-175.
  • Kelly, Tobias. “Review.” Allegra – A Virtual Lab of Legal Anthropology, August 11, 2014.
  • Smith, Charles D. “Review.” American Historical Review 119.4 (2014): 1399-1400.
  • Baruch, Pnina Sharvit. “Review.” Middle Eastern Studies 50.4 (2014): 679-682.
  • Hajjar, Lisa. “Review.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 47.1 (2015): 175-176.

New Article: Vigoda-Gadot, Cohen, and Zalmanovitch, Does the Privatizing of Policy Formation Threaten Democracy?

Vigoda-Gadot, Eran, Haim Cohen & Yair Zalmanovitch. “Does the Privatizing of Policy Formation Threaten Democracy? Arguments from the Israeli Experience.” Policy Studies (ahead of print).

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01442872.2014.946482

 

Abstract

Since the 1970s, the literature on privatization has tried to find the right balance between the public interest and the neoliberal spirit of modern economies. This paper examines the implications of one such process – the privatizing of policy formation. Using examples from Israel, we maintain that allowing private interests to formulate public policy is unique among other types of privatization strategies. We seek to identify the challenges and risks that such an approach to formulating public policy poses. We conclude that the privatizing of far-reaching policies should be done with caution and within parameters outlined by law in order to prevent the potential damage that such privatization efforts might have on democratic governments.

New Article: Palgi and Getz, Varieties in Developing Sustainability: The Case of the Israeli Kibbutz

Palgi, Michal and Shlomo Getz. “Varieties in Developing Sustainability: The Case of the Israeli Kibbutz.” International Review of Sociology 24.1 (2014): 38-47.

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03906701.2014.894344

 

Abstract

Kibbutz communities and organizations were originally structured to be egalitarian and democratic. The last two decades proved to be a major challenge for their sustainability due to a serious economic crisis. Many scholars have lamented the end of the kibbutz, some of them claiming that there is no place for utopias in the twenty-first century. Kibbutz communities were trying to survive within a turbulent economic and social environment. This article will attempt to analyse varieties in developing sustainability that were adopted by kibbutz communities. Focusing on the impact of the economic crisis, we will investigate processes of value change within the kibbutz, taking into consideration that the kibbutz does not exist in a vacuum but is rather embedded within a society that has undergone transformation processes from a socialistic to a capitalistic orientation. The article will look at different solutions that kibbutz communities have adopted and strategies that kibbutz members used in order to cope with this crisis. We will explain how these solutions and strategies are reflected in members’ values and attitudes as well as taking into consideration in which areas value change was fast and in which it was slower. Our analysis will lead to a reflection on the different communitarian and non-communitarian models that might evolve in the kibbutz communities and their possible outcome. The discussion will focus on three dimensions of sustainability methods adopted by kibbutz communities that integrate value change, organizational change, and community processes.

New Article: Acosta, The Dynamics of Israel’s Democratic Tribalism

Acosta, Benjamin. “The Dynamics of Israel’s Democratic Tribalism.” Middle East Journal 68.2 (2014): 268-86.

 

URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mei/mei/2014/00000068/00000002/art00006

 

Abstract

This article evaluates Israeli national identity and its core founding tenets of Zionism, democracy, and Judaism. For decades, demographic changes and associated cultural and ideological fluctuations have gradually pushed Israel into a national identity conflict, as multiple ethnic and sectarian identity groups have come to promote competing interpretations of the state’s purpose, political nature, and connection to territory. Continued demographic shifts, situated amid the sociopolitical dynamics of what this article will define as Israel’s “democratic tribalism,” will further test the compatibility of the constituent parts of Israeli national identity: the respective roles of Zionist ideology, democratic institutions, and the territory of the historic Jewish homeland.

 

 

Dissertation: El-Dandarawy, Evaluating the nature of civil military relations in Israel

El-Dandarawy, Obaida A. Evaluating the nature of civil military relations in Israel. Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, 2010.

 

URL: http://search.proquest.com/docview/861744285

 

Abstract

Noting the unique case study that Israel presents, the following dissertation aims at answering the central research question of whether or not civil military relations in the Israeli state are consistent with that of a liberal-democratic model as Israel is self-described, and whether or not that relationship has changed or evolved over time. The hypothesis adopted at the outset is that civil military dynamics in Israel are not consistent with those of traditional liberal democracies and that Israel’s security concerns, and its particular societal make up has ensured a certain preeminence of the military in politics that goes beyond what would be acceptable in classic liberal democratic models. A two pronged literature review is utilized; the first focusing on civil military relations in general, and the second on Israel specifically. Through the first review a spectrum of civil military relations was plotted and a set of criteria established through which to assess the data collected. The second review provided the necessary understanding and contextual framework within which to evaluate the data on civil military relations taking into account that larger picture of Israeli politics. Three time periods are discussed (1948-1967, 1968-1981, 1982-Present) and researched using the above framework and a particular focus is given to a critical event that occurred within each of the three time periods (1967 War, 1973 War, 1982 Invasion respectively). The final chapter contains the conclusions reached which reaffirm that civil-military relations in Israel are still very much a work in progress.

Subject: Middle Eastern Studies; International Relations; Military studies

Classification: 0555: Middle Eastern Studies; 0601: International Relations; 0750: Military studies

Identifier / keyword: Social sciences, 1967 war, 1973 war, 1982 Lebanon invasion, Civil-military relations, Egypt, Israel

Number of pages: 428

Publication year: 2010

Degree date: 2010

School code: 0930

Source: DAI-A 72/06, Dec 2011

Place of publication: Ann Arbor

Country of publication: United States

ISBN: 9781124556093

Advisor: Shultz, Richard

Committee member: Fawaz, Leila, Hess, Andrew

University/institution: Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University)

Department: Diplomacy, History, and Politics

University location: United States — Massachusetts

Degree: Ph.D.

Source type: Dissertations & Theses

Language: English

Document type: Dissertation/Thesis

Dissertation/thesis number: 3449123

ProQuest document ID: 861744285

ToC: Israel Affairs 19,3 (2013)

Israel     Affairs, Vol. 19, No. 3, 01 Jul 2013 is now available on Taylor & Francis Online.

This new issue contains the following articles:

Original Articles
‘We     need the messiah so that he may not come’: on David Ben-Gurion’s use of     messianic language
Nir Kedar
Pages: 393-409
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799864

Beyond     a one-man show: the prelude of Revisionist Zionism, 1922–25
Jan Zouplna
Pages: 410-432
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799871

Another     Orient in early Zionist thought: East Asia in the press of the Ben-Yehuda     family
Guy Podoler
Pages: 433-450
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799866

Jerusalem     in Anglo-American policy in the immediate wake of the June 1967 war
Arieh J. Kochavi
Pages: 451-467
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799865

A     farewell to arms? NGO campaigns for embargoes on military exports: the case     of the UK and Israel
Gerald M. Steinberg, Anne Herzberg & Asher Fredman
Pages: 468-487
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799869

The     politics of ‘over-victimization’ – Palestinian proprietary claims in the     service of political goals
Haim Sandberg
Pages: 488-504
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799868

Equality,     orthodoxy and politics: the conflict over national service in Israel
Etta Bick
Pages: 505-525
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799862

The     establishment of a political-educational network in the State of Israel:     Maayan Hahinuch Hatorani
Anat Feldman
Pages: 526-541
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799863

Between     the dream and the reality: vocational education in Israel, 1948–92
Nirit Raichel
Pages: 542-561
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799867

The     influence of mergers on the capital market
Tchai Tavor
Pages: 562-579
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799870

Book Reviews
1973:     the way to war
Raphael Cohen-Almagor
Pages: 580-582
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778094

Land     and desire in early Zionism
David Rodman
Pages: 583-584
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799881

Israel     in Africa, 1956–1976
David Rodman
Pages: 584-585
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799899

Zion’s     dilemmas: how Israel makes national security policy
David Rodman
Pages: 586-587
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799882

Should     Israel exist? A sovereign nation under attack by the international     community
David Rodman
Pages: 588-589
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799885

The     role of US diplomacy in the lead-up to the Six Day War: balancing moral     commitments and national interests
David Rodman
Pages: 589-590
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799886

The     wars of the Maccabees: the Jewish struggle for freedom, 167–37 BC
David Rodman
Pages: 590-592
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799887

In     the aftermath of Operation Pillar of Defence: the Gaza strip, November 2012
David Rodman
Pages: 592-593
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799888

The     future of the Jews: how global forces are impacting the Jewish people,     Israel and its relationship with the United States
David Rodman
Pages: 593-595
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799889

The     lives of ordinary people in ancient Israel: where archaeology and the Bible     intersect
David Rodman
Pages: 595-597
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799890

Israel     vs. Iran: the shadow war
David Rodman
Pages: 597-599
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799883

The     triumph of Israel’s radical right
Evan Renfro
Pages: 599-601
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799884

Cite: Schwarz, Arab Sounds in Contested Space: Life Quality, Cultural Hierarchies and National Silencing

Schwarz, Ori. “Arab Sounds in a Contested Space: Life Quality, Cultural Hierarchies and National Silencing.” Ethnic and Racial Studies (published online before print publication).

 

URL: www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870.2013.786109

 

Abstract

Sounds and sonic norms and regimes characterize both spaces/territories and individual bodies. This article explores the meanings of and reactions to Arab sounds in Israel – political struggles over muezzins, stereotypical representations of Israeli Palestinians as loud, and so on – in order to offer general insights into the role of the sonic (both actual sounds and their discursive representations) in the new ‘cultural’ racism, in the everyday ethnicized experience of one’s body, and in shaping relations between ethnic and national groups.

Fellowships: Foundation for Defense of Democracies Summer program (June 15-26, 2013)

After 9/11, numerous colleges and universities added terrorism and homeland security courses to their curricula. Many professors and graduate students who taught these courses complained of having insufficient access to the top practitioners or the latest research in the field. In response, FDD created the Academic Fellowship program for university professors entitled “Defending Democracy, Defeating Terrorism.”

The program features an intensive, 10-day course on terrorism and the threat it poses to democratic societies. Using Israel as a case study, professors are given access to top researchers and officials who provide cutting-edge information about the terrorist threats to democracies worldwide. The goal of the program is to offer information to teaching professionals about the latest trends in terrorists’ ideologies, motives, and operations, and how democracies can fight them.

The course of study occurs both in the classroom at Tel Aviv University and in the field with lectures by academics, diplomats, military and intelligence officials, and politicians from Israel, Jordan, India and the United States. It also features visits to military bases, border zones and other security installations to learn the practical side of deterring terrorist attacks.

This year’s program runs June 15 – 26, 2013 (travel inclusive). All expenses are paid by FDD. 
Deadline for applications is April 5, 2013
.

Eligible professors must:

  • Have a full-time affiliation with a U.S. or Canadian university;
  • Serve in a teaching capacity, preferably in the fields of international affairs, history, law, political science or criminal justice;
  • Have an ongoing involvement in student activities.

Accepted professors must be willing to:

  • Fully participate in the 10-day program in Israel; and
  • Assist in the recruitment of future candidates for the Academic Fellowship Program.

Interested individuals may send inquiries to dana@defenddemocracy.org.

– See more at: http://www.defenddemocracy.org/project/campus-programs/#sthash.vhaY7mPS.dpuf

Cite: Özdemir, Is Consensus Necessary for Inflation Stabilization?

Özdemir, Yonca. “Is `Consensus’ Necessary for Inflation Stabilization? A Comparison of Israel and Turkey.” Middle Eastern Studies 49.1 (2013): 47-62.

 

URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/mes/2013/00000049/00000001/art00004

 

Abstract

By studying two Middle Eastern cases, Israel and Turkey, this study seeks to understand how countries with chronically high inflation achieve permanent stabilization. It is argued that each case of successful stabilization is facilitated by a combination of favourable political conditions. Having an acute crisis is a necessary though not a sufficient condition. It is argued that what politically seems to help most is the creation of ‘social and political consensus’. A wide support for stabilization is more likely if the stabilization plan distributes the costs of stabilization more equally. Skilful leaders also help build consensus and they are more important where other conditions are unfavourable. All these conditions were instrumental in the case of Israel, which is a stable and established democracy. The Turkish case demonstrates that if stabilization is initiated without a consensus, it would prove to be a political disaster for the implementing government. However, rapid positive economic results and favourable political changes may later contribute to creating political and social support for stabilization. In fact, for stabilization to be successful, consensus in the medium term is as or even more important than consensus in the short term.

ToC: Israel Affairs 18,4 (2012)

Israel Affairs, Vol. 18, No. 4, 01 Oct 2012 is now available on Taylor & Francis Online.

This new issue contains the following articles:

Original Articles

Existential threats to Israel: learning from the ancient past
Steven R. David
Pages: 503-525
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.717386

Leadership, preventive war and territorial expansion: David Ben-Gurion and Levi Eshkol
Shlomo Aronson
Pages: 526-545
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.717387

‘Two & three air raids daily. What a bother’: an American diplomat in Israel during the War of Independence
Henry D. Fetter
Pages: 546-562
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.717388

The failed Palestinian–Israeli peace process 1993–2011: an Israeli perspective
Raphael Cohen-Almagor
Pages: 563-576
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.717389

The birth of the core issues: the West Bank and East Jerusalem under Israeli administration 1967–76 (part 1)
Moshe Elad
Pages: 577-595
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.717390

The social representation of incapacity: a psycho-cultural analysis of Israel’s political arena
Mira Moshe
Pages: 596-614
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.717391

The advent of Israel’s commercial lobby
Hila Tal
Pages: 615-628
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.717392

The games must go on? The influence of terror attacks on hosting sporting events in Israel
Yair Galily, Ilan Tamir & Moshe Levy
Pages: 629-644
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.717393

Combat stress reactions during the 1948 war: a conspiracy of silence?
Eldad Rom & Dan Bar-On
Pages: 645-651
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.717394

The US, Hezbollah and the idea of sub-state terrorism
Hussain Sirriyeh
Pages: 652-662
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.717395

Book Reviews

India’s Israel policy
David Rodman
Pages: 663-665
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.718493

The West and the Middle East
David Rodman
Pages: 665-666
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.718494

Nation and history: Israeli historiography between Zionism and post-Zionism
David Rodman
Pages: 666-667
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.718495

Israeli statecraft: national security challenges and responses
David Rodman
Pages: 667-668
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.718496

Confidential: the life of secret agent turned Hollywood tycoon Arnon Milchan
David Rodman
Pages: 669-669
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.718497

The anatomy of Israel’s survival
David Rodman
Pages: 669-670
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.718498

Perspectives of psychological operations (PSYOP) in contemporary conflicts: essays in winning hearts and minds
David Rodman
Pages: 670-671
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.718499

Holy wars: 3000 years of battles in the holy land
David Rodman
Pages: 671-671
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.718500

Crossroads: the future of the U.S.–Israel strategic partnership
David Rodman
Pages: 671-673
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.718501

Israel’s national security law: political dynamics and historical development
David Rodman
Pages: 673-674
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.718502