title: Political parties in a new society (the case of Israel)
Creators: name: Shapiro, Ovadia
Publisher: name: University of Glasgow
Year: 1972
Subjects: subject: Political science, Middle Eastern studies.

description: The "leitmotifs" of this dissertation are: 1) that the emergence of Israel's party system is one aspect of a broader process of "society building"; 2) that "pre-situational" cleavages had a central part in the growth of party-political differentiation.: 3) that the establishment of the State of Israel led to the institutionali-sation of a unified party-system within one polity. The first part discusses the parties of the present and the frameworks of the past. The present Israeli party-system is presented in the first chapter as a multi-party one, with a tendency towards concentration of power in a few large blocs and with a predominant party which does not, however, command a majority in the legislature. Israel is, therefore, characterised by the combination of a predominant party and a coalition government. The second chapter traces the various frameworks, out of which these parties developed. The Jewish people in general, and particularly the Zionist Organisation and the Jewish community in Palestine (the "Yishuv")) are the subjects of discussion. The general idea behind this discussion is that parties had their origins in various frameworks, while a common framework for interaction was only in its rudimentary stages. The second part is devoted to a general discussion of Israel's major parties in historical-political perspective. The point of departure is usually the present party or bloc, while the focus of the discussion moves to the "early" past and the various developments. Chapter 3 is a short introductory chapter which deals with concepts and definition, and their relevance to this study. It is followed by four chapters, which deal with the Labour Party (Ch. 4), the complex of General-Zionist and "bourgeois" parties and political formations (Ch. 5), the Revisionist Party of the pre-State era and the emergence of the present Herut Party (Ch. 6) and the religious parties (Ch. 7). Ethnic formations of the pre-State era are also discussed. in Ch. 7. Throughout the discussion in Part II, the growth of the various parties is traced. This is accompanied by a presentation of major social and political cleavages which are related directly to the emergence of the party under discussion. These cleavages are, however, in many cases, central to the whole subject. The aim of this method of presentation is to gradually acquaint the reader with both the emerging parties, the major cleavages and the emerging polity. The third part, composed of one chapter, is devoted to general con-clusions. In its first sections, there is an attempt to apply the "Lipset-Bokkan" model of cleavages to the material presented throughout the study. This model is thus used as a tool for explanation of the origins of the major parties of which the Israeli system is now composed. Later sections deal with various mechanisms which regulated the re-lations among parties and political formations in the Yishuv, viz the Yishuvls version of accommodation and Verzuiling. The final sections deal with the transition to conditions of statehood and the emergence of a predominant party, within the context of the pre-State and State coalitions and "Verzuiling".