Introduction to Israeli Politics and Society

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reuven Y. Hazan ◽  
Alan Dowty ◽  
Menachem Hofnung ◽  
Gideon Rahat
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Analytical Perspective

Few countries receive as much attention as Israel and are at the same time as misunderstood. The Oxford Handbook of Israeli Politics and Society brings together the leading Israeli and international figures in order to offer the most wide-ranging treatment available of an intriguing country. This chapter tackles the issue of Israeli exceptionalism, arguing against those who shy away from assessing Israel in a comparative perspective—whether for reasons of complexity or because of a political agenda. Israel is indeed different, for many reasons, but it possesses enough similarities in its democratic political institutions and social makeup that to truly understand the country, scholars need to employ a comparative analytical perspective. The chapter argues that Israeli politics and society are comparable, that comparison will improve the ability to assess Israel, and that Israel can contribute to theory building and testing in comparative politics. The chapter then outlines the sections and summarizes the main features of each chapter in this handbook.

Populism and Polarization in Comparative Perspective: Constitutive, Spatial and Institutional Dimensions

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Kenneth M. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Electoral Competition ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Consistent Effect ◽  
The Us ◽  
Issue Dimensions

Abstract Polarization may be the most consistent effect of populism, as it is integral to the logic of constructing populist subjects. This article distinguishes between constitutive, spatial and institutional dimensions of polarization, adopting a cross-regional comparative perspective on different subtypes of populism in Europe, Latin America and the US. It explains why populism typically arises in contexts of low political polarization (the US being a major, if partial, outlier), but has the effect of sharply increasing polarization by constructing an anti-establishment political frontier, politicizing new policy or issue dimensions, and contesting democracy's institutional and procedural norms. Populism places new issues on the political agenda and realigns partisan and electoral competition along new programmatic divides or political cleavages. Its polarizing effects, however, raise the stakes of political competition and intensify conflict over the control of key institutional sites.

Bringing in China

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lily L. Tsai
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
The Political ◽  
Comparative Theory

What do comparativists have to gain by reading recent work on China? In this article, I focus specifically on the ways in which scholarship on China can contribute to the task of theory building in comparative politics. I identify two areas that could reap particularly high benefits from considering scholarship on China—comparative political development and the political behavior of development—and I discuss some of the specific contributions that China scholarship can make to building comparative theory in these areas.

The Challenge of Liberal Legitimacy

2019 ◽  
pp. 63-91
Author(s):  
Gina Schouten
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Gender Norm ◽  
Gender Egalitarianism ◽  
Gendered Division Of Labor ◽  
The Way

There are a few “easy fixes” or “work-arounds” that may appear to dispel the tension between the gender-egalitarian political agenda and a commitment to politically liberal legitimacy. First, we might argue that those who oppose gender egalitarianism are unreasonable, and thus fall outside the justificatory community that liberalism is committed to respecting. Second, we might argue that gender-norm-compliant choices are non-voluntary, and so need not be respected within liberal political institutions. Finally, we might argue that the gendered division of labor violates basic liberties, and so can be politically remediated on those grounds, even if the means of remediation are controversial. This chapter addresses each possibility and shows why they are not promising fixes. The main goals are to show that the problem is genuine and cannot be easily dispelled by some tempting quick fixes, and in so doing to clear the way for consideration of more promising solutions.

scholarly journals The Principle of Proportionality in Comparative Perspective

2007 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 835-869 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margherita Poto
Keyword(s):  
Member State ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Administrative Law ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
European Identity ◽  
Law System ◽  
Principle Of Proportionality ◽  
The Eu

This contribution will contain an analysis of important European dynamics, particularly at this moment when it seems to be necessary to restart the process of a unified European identity, which was, in a way, compromised after the failure of the EU Constitution and the difficulty of giving effectiveness to democracy:the EC professes democracy without being democratic. Thus the fragility of its political institutions, inherently perilous, necessarily reflects on the legitimacy of its legal order, while the constitutional balance intrinsic to the separation of powers ideal is dangerously absent. In other words, while in every Member State, the administrative law system forms part of a working system, this is not the case in the Community.

scholarly journals Institutions, Ideologies, and Comparative Political Theory

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 423-438
Author(s):  
Joshua Simon
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Comparative Political Theory ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Methodological Reflection ◽  
Insight Into

The growing prominence of comparative political theory has inspired extensive and fruitful methodological reflection, raising important questions about the procedures that political theorists should apply when they select texts for study, interpret their passages, and assess their arguments. But, notably, comparative political theorists have mainly rejected the comparative methods used in the subfield of comparative politics, because they argue that applying the comparative method would compromise both the interpretive and the critical projects that comparative political theory should pursue. In this article, I describe a comparative approach for the study of political ideas that offers unique insight into how the intellectual and institutional contexts that political thinkers occupy influence their ideas. By systematically describing how political thinking varies across time and over space in relation to the contexts within which political thinkers live and work, the comparative method can serve as the foundation for both deconstructive critiques, which reveal the partial interests that political ideas presented as universally advantageous actually serve, and reconstructive critiques, which identify particular thinkers or traditions of political thought that, because of the contexts in which they developed, offer compelling critical perspectives on existing political institutions.

scholarly journals Women’s political representation in the local governance of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tasmia Matloob ◽  
Malik Shahzad Shabbir ◽  
Noreen Saher
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Jammu And Kashmir ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Political Processes

Purpose The purpose of this study to identify the role of women in political agenda at Azad Jammu Kashmir. The political parties are always considered main gatekeepers to women’s political representation. Existing scholarship highlights the significance of centralized political institutions (parties) with structured set up for the effective representation of women at different levels. However, the functioning of these institutions is greatly influenced by the social and cultural context of a country in which they operate. Design methodology/approach This paper mainly analyzes social and cultural practices and those informal ways that operate within the exited democratic government setup and creates serious obstacles for women’s effective political representation at the party level. For this purpose, a qualitative research methodology is used to get the full insight of the issue at hand. The authors conducted 25 in-depth interviews with women members of three different political parties. Findings The results revealed that both (social context and political structure) have a significant impact on women’s nature and level of participation in the political processes in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Originality value Prevailing social and political context of Pakistan does not support a truly democratic and centralized political system. Parties are weak entities with the less democratic organizational structure, which ultimately have a negative impact on women’s political representation.

3. The European Policy Process in Comparative Perspective

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alasdair R. Young
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Policy Formation ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Legislative Politics ◽  
Policy Cycle ◽  
Policy Feedback ◽  
Policy Making Process ◽  
The Eu

This chapter examines the European Union’s policy-making process with a comparative perspective. It outlines the stages of the policy-making process (agenda-setting, policy formation, decision-making, implementation, and policy feedback) and considers the prevailing approaches to analysing each of these stages. It also shows how these approaches apply to studying policy-making in the EU. Themes addressed in this chapter include policy-making and the policy cycle, the players in the policy process, executive politics, legislative politics, and judicial politics. The chapter argues that theories rooted in comparative politics and international relations can help elucidate the different phases of the EU’s policy process. It concludes by explaining why policy-making varies across issue areas within the EU.

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