Reviews: Kislev, Water Economy of Israel

Kislev, Yoav. The Water Economy of Israel. Saarbrücken, Germany: Lambert Academic Publishing, 2014.

 

 
Reviews

• Becker, Nir.”Review.” Water Economics and Policy 1.3 (2015).

 

 

New Book: Navot, The Constitution of Israel: A Contextual Analysis

Navot, Suzie. The Constitution of Israel: A Contextual Analysis. Oxford: Hart, 2014.

 

 

This book presents the main features of the Israeli constitutional system and a topical discussion of Israel’s basic laws. It focuses on constitutional history and the peculiar decision to frame a constitution ‘by stages’. Following its British heritage and the lack of a formal constitution, Israel’s democracy grew for more than four decades on the principle of parliamentary supremacy. Introducing a constitutional model and the concept of judicial review of laws, the ‘constitutional revolution’ of the 1990s started a new era in Israel’s constitutional history. The book’s main themes include: constitutional principles; the legislature and the electoral system; the executive; the protection of fundamental rights and the crucial role of the Supreme Court in Israel’s constitutional discourse. It further presents Israel’s unique aspects as a Jewish and democratic state, and its ongoing search for the right balance between human rights and national security. Finally, the book offers a critical discussion of the development of Israel’s constitution and local projects aimed at enacting a single and comprehensive text.

Click here for a full Table of Contents (PDF).

ToC: Israel Affairs 20.3 (2014)

Israel Affairs, Volume 20, Issue 3, July 2014 is now available online on Taylor & Francis Online.

This new issue contains the following articles:

Articles
The ‘Arab Spring’: implications for US–Israeli relations
Banu Eligür
Pages: 281-301
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.922802

The effects of the ‘Arab Spring’ on Israel’s geostrategic and security environment: the escalating jihadist terror in the Sinai Peninsula
Yehudit Ronen
Pages: 302-317
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.922807

Consolidated monarchies in the post-‘Arab Spring’ era: the case of Jordan
Nur Köprülü
Pages: 318-327
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.922803

Turkish foreign policy after the ‘Arab Spring’: from agenda-setter state to agenda-entrepreneur state
Burak Bilgehan Özpek & Yelda Demirağ
Pages: 328-346
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.922806

Myth and reality, denial and concealment: American Zionist leadership and the Jewish vote in the 1940s
Zohar Segev
Pages: 347-369
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.922808

Middle Eastern intellectual correspondence: Jacob Talmon and Arnold Toynbee revisited
Amikam Nachmani
Pages: 370-398
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.922804

Fiscal allocation to Arab local authorities in Israel, 2004–12
Tal Shahor
Pages: 399-409
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.922809

‘Spring of Youth’ in Beirut: the effects of the Israeli military operation on Lebanon
Dan Naor
Pages: 410-425
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.922805

Book Reviews
Bohaterowie, hochsztaplerzy, opisywacze: wokół Żydowskiego Związku Wojskowego [Heroes, hucksters, storytellers: the Jewish Military Organization
Yehuda Bauer
Pages: 426-429
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897470

Israel: a history
David Rodman
Pages: 430-431
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897025

Holy war in Judaism: the fall and rise of a controversial idea
David Rodman
Pages: 431-432
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897027

Saturday people, Sunday people: Israel through the eyes of a Christian sojourner
David Rodman
Pages: 433-434
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897028

The Arab Spring, democracy and security: domestic and international ramifications
David Rodman
Pages: 434-436
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897029

Operation Damocles: Israel’s secret war against Hitler’s scientists, 1951–1967
David Rodman
Pages: 436-437
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897030

A Jew’s best friend? The image of the dog throughout Jewish history
David Rodman
Pages: 437-438
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897031

2048
David Rodman
Pages: 438-440
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897032

Tested by Zion: the Bush administration and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
David Rodman
Pages: 440-441
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897033

Routledge handbook of modern Israel
David Rodman
Pages: 441-442
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897034

Israel’s clandestine diplomacies
David Rodman
Pages: 442-444
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.897026

Erratum
Erratum

Pages: 1-1
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.937589

New Article: Cohen, National Budget Transparency and the Israeli Health Care Policy

Cohen, Nissim. “The Power of Expertise? Politician–Bureaucrat Interactions, National Budget Transparency and the Israeli Health Care Policy.” Policy Studies 34.5-6 (2013): 638-54.

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01442872.2013.804174

 

Abstract

How do ministry of Finance (MOF) bureaucrats preserve their dominance in the national budget process? As we all know, MOF bureaucrats are important in politics and policy, we know much less about exactly how they play their role. Political analysis of the interaction between politicians and bureaucrats in the Israeli healthcare policy arena reveals asymmetry of information in favour of the bureaucrats at the MOF. Among others, this asymmetry is also due to a lack of transparency in the national budgeting process. While presenting the balance of power between the players in the Israeli health policy arena, we point to the MOF bureaucrats as the most dominant players – though their power is not absolute as it always seems. Quite a few indications point at ‘non-democratic’ strategies made by these bureaucrats in their interactions with the other players. The empirical findings show that alongside bureaucrats’ expertise, strategies based on concealment, manipulation in presentation of information, lack of transparency and ‘Buying’ politicians (bribe for budgets) establish the dominance of MOF’s bureaucrats in the policy arena. Under the structural conditions of centralisation, the other players tend to find alternative solutions for promoting the public policies they seek.