A critique of quantitative measures of the degree of democracy in Israel

Democratization

Volumn 13, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 257-282

  McHenry Jr , Dean ^a   Mady, Abdel Fattah ^b  

^a CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b Alexandria University   (Egypt)

Author keywords

Democracy measures; Israeli Arabs; Israeli democracy; Quantitative indices

Indexed keywords

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK; DEMOCRACY; ETHNOPOLITICS;

ASIA; EURASIA; ISRAEL; MIDDLE EAST;

EID: 33645777206     PISSN: 13510347     EISSN: 1743890X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13510340500523960     Document Type: Article

References (108)

1. Gerardo Munck and Jay Verkuilen, 'Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy, Evaluating Alternative Indices', Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 35, No. 1 (2002), pp. 5-34.
2. Axel Hadenius and Jan Teorell, 'Same, Sam - But Different: Assessing Alternative Indices of Democracy', a paper presented at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, 2-5 September 2004.
3. For example, Dean McHenry Jr., 'Quantitative Measures of Democracy in Africa: An Assessment', Democratization, Vol. 7, No. 2 (2000), pp. 168-85.
4. Robert Dahl, Polyarchy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1971), p. 42
5. Arend Lijphart, Democracies (New Haven, CT: Yale University, 1984), p. 50
6. Samuel Huntington, The Third Wave. Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991), pp. 19, 40.
7. Freedom House, 'Freedom in the World Country Ratings, 1972 through 2004', http://www.freedomhouse.org/ratings/index.htm
8. Monty Marshall and Keith Jaggers, 'Polity IV Project, Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800-2002', at http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/ inscr/polity/. The Freedom House scores for political rights and civil liberties each may range between 1 and 7 with 1 constituting the 'highest' (i.e. best) and 7 the 'lowest' score. The political rights scores were 2 from 1972 to 1992 and 1 from 1993 to the present. The civil liberties scores were 3 from 1972 to 1976 becoming 2 in 1977; they became 3 in 1993 and have remained the same except for the single year of 1999 when they became a 2. The scores of the two parts have been combined to constitute the democracy score with a scale of 2-14. This has been inverted and recast into a scale of 0-10 in order to compare the scores with Polity IV democracy scores. The score '0' means non-democratic, while '10' means fully democratic.
9. Tim Wise, an activist and prolific anti-racist writer, has remarked 'If what we see in Israel is indeed democracy, then what does fascism look like?'.
10. See Wise, 'Why Israel is not a Democracy', Green Left Weekly Online Edition, 29 May 2002, at http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2002/494/ 494p11.htm
11. Similarly, Meron Benvenisti, a former Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem and author, refers to the Israeli 'illusion' that the country has remained committed to universal democratic values. See Meron Benvenisti, Intimate Enemies, Jews and Arabs in a Shared Land (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995), p. 31.
12. International Crisis Group, 'Identity Crisis: Israel and Its Arab Citizens,' ICG Middle East Report No. 25 (4 March 2004), pp. i-ii.
13. Naama Yashuvi, 'The State of Human Rights in Israel 2004', The Association for Human Rights in Israel, p. 2, at http://www.acri.org.il/ english-acri/engine/story.asp?id=182. In the occupied territories, Yashuvi asserts, 'The state of human rights ... has never been worse as thousands of human beings are trapped in living space that is shrinking all the time. Freedom of movement has already become an abstract concept, such as the right to survival and personal security that cannot be taken for granted.'
14. Ibid.
15. See 'Statistics Regarding Israeli Arabs', at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_Culture/ israeliarabs.html
16. See, for more details, David Kretzmer, The Legal Status of the Arabs in Israel (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990), pp. 22-27.
17. See, for more details, Nadim N. Rouhana, Palestinians Citizens in an Ethnic Jewish State: Identities in Conflict (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997), pp. 334-5.
18. See http://www.knesset.gov.il/laws/special/eng/basic2_eng.htm or http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Politics/ Basic_Law_Knesset.html. It is interesting to note that the clause blocking from candidature anyone who incited racism was aimed not at limiting the participation of Israeli Arabs but at Rabbi Kahane who wished to limit the participation of Israeli Arabs.
19. See Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Basic Law: The Knesset (1958) (Updated January 2003), at http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/1950_1959 /Basic%20Law-%20The%20Knesset%20-1958-%20-%20updated%20translatio
20. Jonathan Cook and Alexander Key, Silencing Dissent: A Report on the Violation of Political Rights of the Arab Parties in Israel (Haifa, Israel: The Arab Association for Human Rights, October 2002), p. 25, at http://www.arabhra.org/publications/reports/PDF/SilencingDissentFinal.pdf
21. Ibid., pp. 26-27.
22. Ibid., p. 28.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid., pp. 28-29.
25. Ibid., p. 29.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid., p. 30.
28. Ibid.
29. A partial exception was made for the Arab MKs who belonged to Jewish parties that were in some governmental coalitions. That is, the few Arab deputy ministers or ministers have been placed in charge of affairs relevant to minorities and not the general population. See: As'ad Ghanem, The Palestinian-Arab Minority in Israel, 1948-2000: A Political Study (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2001), p. 165.
30. Ibid., pp. 167-8.
31. Ibid., p. 168. Barak received only 51 per cent of the Jewish vote and more than 90 per cent of the Arab vote.
32. The Arab Association for Human Rights, Discrimination Diary, "Silencing Civil Society: Harassment of Arab NPOs by the Registrar of Nonprofit Organizations', May 31, 2000, at http://www.arabhra.org/publications/ shortreports/shortreports000531.htm
33. Ibid.
34. For example, the Registrar singled out the Galilee Society, the oldest Arab NPO in Israel, for investigation that took three months, and led to disrupt the Galilee Society's work. Because of all the organization's funds were frozen during investigations, none of its staff received salaries for three months.
35. Ibid.
36. Ibid.
37. See for more details: The Arab Association for Human Rights, Weekly Review of the Arab Press in Israel, No. 110 (26 February-4 March 2003), at http://www.arabhra.org/wrap/wrap110.htm
38. The Arab Association for Human Rights, Discrimination Diary, "Silencing Civil Society: Harassment of Arab NPOs by the Registrar of Nonprofit Organizations', 31 May 2000, at http://www.arabhra.org/publications/shortreports/shortreports000531.htm
39. Efforts of some Arab organization forced the Registrar to make some ad-hoc changes. Following a case Adalah (The Legal Center for the Rights of the Arab Minority and the Arab Human Rights Association) won against the Ministry of Education in 1999, the Attorney General issued a directive that government notices must be published in both Hebrew and Arabic to ensure equal access to information. Further, the Registrar reduced the retroactivity of some requirements from seven years to five, and recognized the need to hire more staff to increase office efficiency.
40. Ibid.
41. The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour, Israel and the Occupied Territories: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2001, US State Department, Washington, DC, 4 March 2002, at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/nea/8262.htm
42. The Arab association for Human Rights, Weekly Review of the Arab Press in Israel, No. 103 (17-31 December, 2002), at http://www.arabhra.org/ wrap/wrap103.htm
43. Ha'aretz, 23 December 2002.
44. Quoted in John Quigley, Palestine and Israel: A Challenge to Justice (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1990), p. 145.
45. Ibid., p. 146.
46. Ibid.
47. Monty G. Marshall and Ted Robert Gurr, Peace and Conflict: 2003 A Global Survey of Armed Conflicts, Self-Determination Movements, and Democracy (College Park: Integrated Network for Societal Conflict Research (INSCR), Center for International Development and Conflict Management (CIDCM), University of Maryland, February 2003), pp. 10-11.
48. For more details, see Quigley (note 36), pp. 103 and 121-5.
49. The Freedom House measure is negatively affected by change in 'the ethnic composition of a country' and by tipping 'the political balance in favour of another group'. Thus, these policies are relevant to Israeli democracy.
50. For more details, see Quigley (note 36), pp. 119-21.
51. For more details, see Rouhana (note 11), pp. 54-5.
52. Quoted in Kretzmer (note 10), pp. 18-19.
53. Jewish scholar Ian Lustick refers to a programme providing special incentives for large families was administered by the Jewish Agency instead of by the government to ensure that only Jews would be motivated to have more children. See Ian Lustick, Arabs in the Jewish State: Israel's Control of a National Minority (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1980), p. 109.
54. The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (Adalah), 'The Palestinian Minority in the Israeli Legal System', at http://www.adalah.org/eng/backgroundlegalsystem.php
55. Ibid.
56. Ibid.
57. Ibid.
58. Ibid.
59. Ibid.
60. There is a very large body of literature supporting this conclusion, such as: The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), 'A Status Report-Equality for Arab Citizens of Israel', at http://www.acri.org.il/ english-acri/engine/story.asp?id=100
61. Alon Etkin, 'Wage Levels in Different Localities in Israel 1993-1999', Information on Equality and Social Justice in Israel (ADVA), http://www.adva.org/wagelevels.html
62. The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (Adalah), 'The Palestinian Minority in the Israeli Legal System', http://www.adalah.org/ eng/backgroundlegalsystem.php
63. The Arab Association for Human Rights, Discrimination Diary (26 December 1999), http://www.arabhra.org/dd/dd1226.htm
64. US Department of State, The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour, Israel and the Occupied Territories: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2001 (4 March 2001), http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/ hrrpt/2001/nea/8262.htm
65. Human Rights Watch, Second Class: Discrimination Against Palestinian Arab Children in Israel's schools (New York, September 2001), http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/israel2/.
66. Examples of the former include the Supreme Court decision requiring the state to set egalitarian criteria for determining who will be included in the Neighborhood Rehabilitation Program. See: The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), 'The State of Human Rights in Israel: 2002', at http://www.acri.org.il/english-acri/engine/story.asp?id=56
67. The Knesset has passed a law requiring the fair representation in the civil service to Arabs, women, and people with disabilities. Furthermore,the general health fund eliminated the requirement of army service as a criterion for employment. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), 'A Status Report-Equality for Arab Citizens of Israel', at http://www.acri.org.il/english-acri/engine/story.asp?id=100
68. Marshall and Jaggers (note 5), p. 8.
69. Freedom House, 'Freedom in the World 2004: Survey Methodology', at http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/freeworld/2005/methodology.htm
70. Robert Dahl, On Democracy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998), p. 38.
71. Robert Dahl, Polyarchy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1971), p. 2.
72. Michael Saward, 'Enacting Democracy,' Political Studies, Vol. 51, No.1 (2003), p. 162.
73. Lijphart (Note 4), p. 1.
74. Ibid., p. 2.
75. Huntington (note 4), p. 16.
76. Ibid., p. 7.
77. Rabbi Moshe Sober, Beyond the Jewish State, Confessions of a Former Zionist (Toronto: Summerhill Press, 1990), p. 157. Rabbi Sober notes that the establishment saw Kahane's call as a dangerous threat.
78. Ibid.
79. McHenry (note 3).
80. Marshall and Jaggers (note 5).
81. Munck and Verkuilen (note 1), p. 11.
82. In the case of Freedom House, the political rights and civil liberties aspects that others combine for their democracy score are defined.
83. See Huntington (note 4), p. 7
84. Arend Lijphart, Patterns of Democracy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999), pp. 48-50
85. and, Larry Diamond, Developing Democracy, Toward Consolidation (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), p. 8. Indeed, Lijphart used the Freedom House measure to determine which countries were democratic and which were not.
86. Alan Dowty, 'Is Israel Democratic? Substance and Semantics in the "Ethnic Democracy" Debate', Israel Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1999), p. 2.
87. Ibid.
88. Ibid.
89. Ibid., p. 3.
90. Ibid.
91. Ibid., p. 4.
92. Ibid., p. 5.
93. Gershon Shaked, 'Democracy and Jewish Dominance', in Joseph David (ed.), The State of Israel: Between Judaism and Democracy (Jerusalem: The Israel Democracy Institute, 2003), p. 174.
94. Ibid., p. 175.
95. Larry Diamond, 'Democracy as Paradox', in Ehud Sprinzak and Larry Diamond (eds), Israeli Democracy Under Stress (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1993), p. 23.
96. Ibid., p. 13.
97. Ibid., p. 10.
98. Ibid., p. 11.
99. Alan Dowty, The Jewish State, A Century Later (Berkeley, CA:UNiversity of California Press, 1998), p. 16.
100. Ibid., p. 13.
101. Ibid., p. 4.
102. Asher Arian, Politics in Israel, The Second Generation, Revised Edition (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers, Inc., 1989), p. 283.
103. Ephraim Yuchtman-Ya'ar and Yochanan Peres, Between Consent and Dissent, Democracy and Peace in the Israeli Mind (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2000), p. 19.
104. Ibid., pp. 19-20.
105. Ibid., p. 21.
106. The complete removal of Jewish settlers from all 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four small settlements in the West Bank in August 2005 weakened the stance of those who envisioned a Greater Israel that would include the 'occupied territories'.
107. Although scored similarly on the Polity IV scale, on the Freedom House 14 point scale, Norway has been a '2' and Israel a '4'.
108. Although scored similarly on the Freedom House scale, on the Polity IV 10 point scale, Guyana is a '6', while Israel is a '10'.