Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T15:20:05.577Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Political-Elite Formation and Transition to Democracy in Pre-State Conditions: Comparing Israel and the Palestinian Authority

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2013

Aviad Rubin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article's main argument complements the literature on transitions to democracy by focusing on the long-term process of political- elite formation and its influence on the ability of political elites to lead a peaceful and stable transition to democracy. By comparing the case of Israel before independence and the case of Palestine before the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, this article suggests that gradual political-elite formation from within the domestic population is likely to achieve better democratic results than a political- elite formation in exile, without close ties to the domestic population, that is ‘parachuted’ on the population when the political entity is formed.

Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 44 , Issue 3 , 2009 , pp. 262 - 284
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2009.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2007 Report, on a scale of 1 to 7 (1 being most free), Israel scored 1 in political rights and 2 in civil liberties, exactly the same as Greece, a longstanding member of the EU (www.freedomhouse.org).Google Scholar

2 Putnam, R., The Comparative Study of Political Elites, Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice Hall, 1976, p. 11.Google Scholar

3 Higley, J. and Moore, G., ‘Political Elite Studies at the Year 2000’, International Review of Sociology, 11: 2 (2001), p. 176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Kitschelt, H., ‘Accounting for Postcommunist Regime Diversity: What Counts as a Good Cause?’, in Ekiert, G. and Hanson, S. (eds), Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: Assessing the Legacy of Communist Rule, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 49–86.Google Scholar

5 O'Donnell, G. and Schmitter, P., Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies, Baltimore, MD, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986, p. 6.Google Scholar

6 J. Higley and R. Gunther (eds), Elites and Democratic Consolidation in Latin America and Southern Europe, New York, Cambridge University Press, 1992; Higley, J. and Burton, M., ‘The Elite Variable in Democratic Transitions and Breakdowns’, American Sociological Review, 54 (1989), pp. 17–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Diamond, L., Consolidating Democracy, Baltimore, MD, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998, pp. 64–116.Google Scholar

8 Smooha, S., ‘The Model of Ethnic Democracy: Israel as a Jewish and Democratic State’, Nations and Nationalism, 8: 4 (2002), pp. 475–503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 Kimmerling, B. and Migdal, J. S., Palestinians: The Making of a People, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1993, pp. 261–75.Google Scholar

10 El-Sarraj, E., ‘Mental Health Challenges for the Palestinian Authority: The Psycho-Political Legacy of the Intifada’, in Sela, A. and Maoz, M. (eds), The PLO and Israel: From Armed Conflict to Political Solution, 1964–1994, New York, St Martin's Press, 1997, pp. 163–70.Google Scholar

11 Usher, Graham, ‘What Kind of Nation? The Rise of Hamas in the Occupied Territories’, in Beinin, Joel and Stork, Joe (eds), Political Islam, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1997, pp. 339–54Google Scholar; Mishal, S. and Sela, A., The Palestinian Hamas: Vision, Violence and Coexistence, 2nd edn, New York, Columbia University Press, 2006.Google Scholar

12 Brecher, M., Decisions in Israel's Foreign Policy, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1974, p. 320.Google Scholar

13 Karsh, E., Arafat's War – The Man and His Battle for Israeli Conquest, New York, Grove Press, 2003 Google Scholar; Brynen, R., ‘The Dynamics of Palestinian Elite Formation’, Journal of Palestinian Studies, 24: 3 (1995), pp. 31–43, p. 41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 Zohar, M. Bar, Ben-Gurion: Biography, Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defence Press, 2005.Google Scholar

15 Shapiro, Y., An Elite Without Successors: Generations of Political Leaders in Israel, Tel-Aviv, Sifriat Poalim Publishing, 1984, pp. 20–3.Google Scholar

16 Ibid., pp. 37–9.Google Scholar

17 Ibid.Google Scholar

18 Migdal, J., Strong Societies and Weak States: State–Society Relations and State Capabilities in the Third World, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1988, pp. 163–9.Google Scholar

19 Lissak, M., Social Mobility in Israel Society, Jerusalem, Israel Universities Press, 1969, pp. 101–2.Google Scholar

20 Horowitz, D. and Lissak, M., The Origins of the Israeli Polity: The Political System of the Jewish Community in Palestine under the Mandate, Tel-Aviv, Am Oved Publishers, 1977, p. 98.Google Scholar

21 Migdal, Strong Societies, pp. 142–73.Google Scholar

22 Horowitz and Lissak, The Origins of the Israeli Polity, p. 209.Google Scholar

23 Ibid., p. 91; Migdal, Strong Societies and Weak States, pp. 172–3.Google Scholar

24 U. Brenner, Altalena: A Political and Military Research, Efal, Tabenkin Institute, 1978.Google Scholar

25 Shikaki, K., ‘The Peace Process, National Reconstruction, and the Transition to Democracy in Palestine’, Journal of Palestine Studies, 25: 2 (1996), pp. 5–20, p. 12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 Brynen, ‘The Dynamics of Palestinian Elite Formation’, p. 31.Google Scholar

27 C. A. Rubenberg, The Palestinians in Search of a Just Peace, Boulder, CO, Lynne Reinner, 2003, p. 240.Google Scholar

28 Shikaki, ‘The Peace Process’, p. 15; Shikaki, ‘Palestinians Divided’, Foreign Affairs, 81: 1 (January–February 2002); Kimmerling and Migdal, Palestinians, pp. 261–75.Google Scholar

29 M. Klein, ‘From a Doctrine-Oriented to a Solution-Oriented Policy: The PLO's “Right of Return”, 1964–2000’, in J. Ginat and E. Perkins (eds), The Palestinian Refugees, Old Problems – New Solutions, Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 2001, pp. 46–56, pp. 47–8; E. Sahliyeh, ‘The PLO and the Politics of Ethnonational Mobilization’, in Sela and Maoz, The PLO and Israel, pp. 3–22; Y. Sayigh, ‘The Armed Struggle and Palestinian Nationalism’, in Sela and Maoz, The PLO and Israel, pp. 23–36.Google Scholar

30 D. McDowall, The Palestinians: The Road to Nationhood, London, Minority Rights, 1994, pp. 71, 74.Google Scholar

31 J. Hilal, ‘Palestinian Elite’, La Rivista del Manifesto, 28 (May 2002).Google Scholar

32 H. Frisch, Countdown to Statehood, Palestinian State Formation in the West Bank and Gaza, Albany, NY, State University of New York Press, 1998; Brynen, ‘The Dynamics of Palestinian Elite Formation’; Shikaki, ‘Palestinians Divided’; Kimmerling and Migdal, Palestinians. Google Scholar

33 E. Said, ‘Are There No Limits to Corruption?’, in E. Said, The End of the Peace Process – Oslo and After, New York, Pantheon Books, 2000, pp. 177–81.Google Scholar

34 Fukuyama, F., ‘Social Capital and Development: the Coming Agenda’, Sais Review, 22: 1 (2002), pp. 23–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 Rubin, B., The Transformation of Palestinian Politics: From Revolution to State Building, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1999, p. 47.Google Scholar

36 Rubenberg, The Palestinians, p. 247; Shikaki, ‘The Peace Process’, p. 9.Google Scholar

37 M. Litvak, ‘Palestinian Politics after Arafat: Prospects and Problems’, Tel Aviv Notes, 115, 16 November 2004.Google Scholar

38 Frisch, Countdown to Statehood, pp. 135–8.Google Scholar

39 M. Litvak, ‘Inside Versus Outside – The Challenge of the Local Leadership, 1967–1994’, in Sela and Maoz, The PLO and Israel, pp. 171–95, p. 190.Google Scholar

40 Shikaki, ‘Palestinians Divided’.Google Scholar

41 Frisch, Countdown to Statehood, pp. 151–2.Google Scholar

42 Kimmerling and Migdal, Palestinians, p. 250.Google Scholar

43 Shikaki, ‘The Peace Process’, p. 12.Google Scholar

44 Litvak, ‘Inside Versus Outside’, p. 188.Google Scholar

45 Shikaki, ‘The Peace Process’, p. 12.Google Scholar

46 The CPRS Project, in ibid., p. 13.Google Scholar

47 Ibid.Google Scholar

48 Freedom House, 2007 Annual Report on Palestine, Freedom in the World, (www.freedomhouse.org).Google Scholar

49 E. Bellin, ‘The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Exceptionalism in Comparative Perspective’, Comparative Politics, 36: 2 (January 2004), pp. 139–57.Google Scholar

50 IPS Forum, ‘A Window on the Workings of the PA: An Inside View’, Journal of Palestine Studies, 25: 1 (1995), pp. 88–97, p. 88.Google Scholar

51 Ibid., p. 90. Frisch, Countdown to Statehood, pp. 132–46.Google Scholar

52 Rubenberg, The Palestinians, p. 249; N. J. Brown, Palestinian Politics After the Oslo Accords – Resuming Arab Palestine, California, University of California Press, 2003, p. 136.Google Scholar

53 Rubenberg, The Palestinians, p. 250.Google Scholar

54 Kimmerling and Migdal, Palestinian, pp. 242–51.Google Scholar

55 Shikaki, ‘The Peace Process’, p. 9.Google Scholar

56 Frisch, Countdown to Statehood, pp. 125–30.Google Scholar

57 Frisch, ‘From Palestine Liberation Organization to Palestine Authority: The Territorialization of “Neopatriarchy”’, in Sela and Maoz, The PLO and Israel, pp. 55–71, pp. 56–7.Google Scholar

58 Shikaki, ‘The Peace Process’, p. 10.Google Scholar

59 IPS Forum, ‘A Window on the Workings of the PA’, p. 90.Google Scholar

60 Bellin, ‘The Robustness of Authoritarianism’.Google Scholar

61 Frisch, Countdown to Statehood, pp. 128–9.Google Scholar

62 R. Bowker, Palestinian Refugees: Mythology, Identity, and the Search for Peace, Boulder, CO, Lynne Rienner, 2003, p. 168.Google Scholar

63 Seitz, C., ‘Hamas Stands Down?’, Middle East Report, 221 (2001), pp. 4–7, p. 5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

64 S. Mishal and A. Sela, The Hamas Wind – Violence and Coexistence, Tel Aviv, Miskal, 1999, pp. 101–60.Google Scholar

65 Hroub, K., ‘Hamas After Shaykh Yasin and Rantisi’, Journal of Palestine Studies, 33: 4 (2004), pp. 21–38, p. 22;CrossRefGoogle Scholar G. Usher, ‘The Hamas Triumph’, The Nation, 20 February 2006.