Religion and Quality of Democracy in Israel
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IMT Institute for Advanced Studies, Lucca Lucca, Italy RELIGION AND QUALITY OF DEMOCRACY IN ISRAEL PhD Program in Political System and Institutional Change XXIV Cycle By Valentina Giommoni 2013 The dissertation of Valentina Giommoni is approved. Programme Coordinator: Giovanni, Orsina, Luiss Guido Carli Supervisor: Leonardo, Morlino, Luiss Guido Carli Tutor(s): Antonio, Masala, IMT Lucca The dissertation of Valentina Giommoni has been reviewed by: Leonardo Morlino, Luiss Guido Carli Antonio Masala, IMT Lucca Pier Giuseppe Monateri, Università degli Studi di Torino IMT Institute for Advanced Studies, Lucca 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………….…..….…….V VITA …………………………………………………………..…..…... VII ABSTRACT………………………………………….….…………..... VIII INTRODUCTION…………………………………….………..…..….. 1 CHAPTER 1 How Israeli democracy is assessed: a critical review of the literature 1.1 ETHNIC CLEAVAGE AND DEMOCRACY ……………..…..….. 5 1.2 LIBERAL DEMOCRACY: FORMAL ASPECTS AND IMPLEMENTATION …………………………………………….…….. 19 1.3 THE NOTION OF STATUS QUO AND HOW IT AFFECTS DEMOCRACY………………………………….………………….…….…34 1.4 THEORETICAL APPROACH TO THE ANALYSIS OF THE QUALITY OF DEMOCRACY……………………….…………………... 43 CHAPTER 2 Todem Model applied to Israel: the analysis of procedural dimensions 2.1 RULE OF LAW………………………………………..………………58 2.2 ELECTORAL ACCOUNTABILITY………………...………………132 V 2.3 INTERINSTITUTIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY…………………156 2.4 PARTICIPATION………………………………………..…………. 186 2.5 COMPETITION………………………………………………..……. 207 CHAPTER 3 What does religion explain? 3.1 RELIGION AND THE RULE OF LAW……………………..….… 225 3.2 RELIGION AND PARTICIPATION……………………………… 270 3.3 RELIGION AND COMPETITION………………………………..286 3.4 HISTORICAL REASONS FOR RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE….…300 CONCLUSIONS………………………………….………………………317 BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………..……….…………..338 VI VITA May, 8, 1982 Born in Bibbiena, Italy 2004 Degree in International Communication Final Mark 108/110 Università per Stranieri di Perugia Perugia, Italy 2007 Degree in Political Science Final Mark 110/110 cum laude Università degli Studi di Firenze Firenze, Italy 2012 Research Period Rothberg International School Hebrew University of Jerusalem Jerusalem, Israel VII ABSTRACT This research aims to answer the following questions: How does religion (in particular Judaism) affect the quality of democracy in Israel? Why, historically, religion assumed this role? How the correlation between religion and democracy affects the life of the so called "dominant" Jewish group? Using the TODEM method for democratic deepening, the procedural dimensions are investigated. The dimensions are: rule of law, electoral and inter-institutional accountability, participation and competition. After analyzing of all of them, a strong influence of religion is found in rule of law, participation and competition. This influence is evident at the institutional as well as at the social level and deeply affects the quality of democracy. Although the research does not question the belonging of Israel to the democratic group, a label is created to underline the shaping influence of religion: Orthodemocracy. This term refers both to the institutional role of religion (all recognized religions in Israel are given this role) and, in a more specific acceptation, to the role of Orthodox Judaism. The legal validity of religious norms in Orthodemocracy creates paths of discrimination and inequality that greatly impact on the daily life of the citizens. Jewish citizens, that a popular ethnic approach portrays as dominant in the Israeli society are all but exempted from the discriminatory effects. The strong influence that religion plays has historical reasons: this research argues that the source of power, since the diffusion of the nationalistic ideology, was the need for the state-enterprise to be agreed upon among all Jews. Religious legitimization, especially at the international level, was an absolute necessity for the Zionist project. Benefiting from this very political need, the religious minority managed to achieve astounding victories in terms of autonomy and influence in the society. After the dominance of the Zionists political leadership extinguished, the power was maintained through a new political role that the religious parties acquired in the fragmented Israeli society: that of Kingmakers. VIII IX INTRODUCTION The relation between religion and democracy in Israel, where religion is intertwined in an inextricable way to ethnicity, is a much debated issue. Many scholars addressed the topic of the secularity of the State, talked about citizenship, social conflict and exclusion. The definition of Israel as a Jewish and democratic State has been raising doubts and criticisms. In some cases it has also been defined as an oxymoron. Many of the theories elaborated on the topic tend to focus on the repercussions that this regime has on the status of the Arab population of Israel, emphasizing the ethnic cleavage existing in the society. While doing so, a dominant position is attributed to the Jewish population. This group is depicted in its entireness, as a body that enjoys the benefits provided by an ad hoc regime. I considered this approach non satisfactory since it lacks the ability to fully picture the Israeli society. In my review, I enlightened how the concepts of ethnic democracy, majoritarian democracy and in general the approaches based on the ethnic cleavage only partially describe rooted mechanisms of discrimination and State malfunctioning whose consequences affect the life of the Jewish population. As a consequence, I found a greater scientific interest in investigating the religious issue and trying answering the following questions: How does religion (in particular Judaism) affect the quality of democracy in Israel? Why, historically, religion assumed this role? How the correlation between religion and democracy affects the life of the so called "dominant" Jewish group? Questions concerning the relation between religion and democracy in Israel have been addressed before and answered according to different disciplinary approaches (legal, political, sociological, historical etc.). In the first chapter the main approaches were reviewed. An extensive theoretical investigation was made on the concept of democracy and its 1 definition. The focus was directed to the concept of liberal democracy, considered a model to tend to in many of the ethnic-oriented studies. Indeed, liberal democracy is one of the most common and praised models of democracy. I discussed its structural features and its implementation and I reported views on its inadequacy in defending its citizens or to promote reciprocal acceptation and harmony.. A liberal democratic regime would not necessarily guarantee a high democratic quality: structural elements need to be accompanied by a democratic culture in order to be effective and not to lead to distortions. The existence of a democratic culture both in the pre-State Jewish community and in the State era was questioned. Many scholars answer negatively to this question. In the last part of my literature review, I acknowledged the necessity to conduct a deep analysis of the Israeli democracy and I reviewed some of the main approaches that suggest an investigation on the actual functioning of democracy as one of the fundamental indicator of its quality. In this context, I introduced the methodological tool that I chose for my investigation: the TODEM method for democratic deepening. This method begins the epistemological activity with the exploration of the concept of quality and traces three semantic paths (quality as a procedure, quality as content and quality as a result). These acceptations are then translated in dimensions according to which democracy is analyzed. The procedural, substantial and result dimensions are further divided in sub-dimensions and then in indicators on which is possible to operate a qualitative and quantitative investigation. I decided to focus on the procedural dimensions (that are rule of law, electoral and inter-institutional accountability, participation and competition), in order to examine the provisions that govern the functioning of the Israeli democracy. I investigated deeply the aspect of the rule of law since a great relevance is generally recognized to this aspect; additionally, it was mentioned in the original form of the TODEM model as the basic one. The deepening on the procedural dimension did not exclude the other dimensions that actually emerged during the dissertation, proving the essential interconnection among the dimensions. The provisions and settings 2 linkable to specific aspect of religion were of course enlightened to be later collected and further elaborated in my third chapter. In the third chapter I noted how religion affects democracy in the administration of justice both standing as an alternative pole of legal authority and actually discussing the very nature of the law. I pointed out the role of the religious parties in the formation of Governments: their blackmail power as well as their ability to influence the governmental agenda and the allocation of public funds. Further, I noticed a double path in the connection between religion and participation. From one hand, the level of religiosity is linked to segregationist tendencies and refusal of participating. On the other hand, some successful experiments of integration and social approval have been autonomously started by the segregationist communities. The implemented projects are benefic activities that are promoted since they are seen