The Meaning of Political Participation in a Nonliberal Democracy: The Israeli Experience
Author(s)
Ben-Eliezer, Uri
Abstract
How do cultural rules shape the meaning of participation in politics? Israel offers an example of the impact of a nonliberal, collective democracy on political participation. Political participation is examined during two different historical periods: the prestate era, when the meaning of political participation was institutionalized, and the last twenty years, when Israel faced a new phenomenon of protest. In both periods Israel’s nonliberal democracy fostered the separation of political participation from political influence. Israeli democracy can be characterized as a system of domination that avoids change, not by relying on people’s tendency to be politically apathetic, but by relying on people’s tendency to participate.
