Developments In Israeli Public Administration

The "Israeli History, Politics and Society" series comprises multidisciplinary studies that range from elections and the Yom Kippur war to the search for a true Israeli identity and the various initiatives to foment or prevent the peace process. This volume brings together a set of articles that try to estimate the direction of developments in Israeli public administration: whether ministries will remain under the ambit of the Weberian model, follow the New Public Management model, or move towards a mix of the two. Each essay focuses on a specific factor which may inhibit reforms, such as the weakness of mechanisms for policy control, monitoring and evaluation; lack of co-ordination between the different ministries; lack of effective accountability mechanisms; an administrative culture that is characterized by frequent infringements of moral integrity; a high level of politicization; and a Supreme Court which plays a paramount role by routinely intervening in the practices of public administration as well as in the business of other governmental and non-governmental institutions. Each article probes how these distinctive features of Israeli public administration reflect underlying traits of the nation's history, culture and geography, and gauges the extent to which formal structures provide an indication of how policy-making and programme implementation really operate.

As government management in Israel is gradually replaced by private sector management, it is becoming apparent that the collective-oriented mission of government cannot be fulfilled by the private sector or by the non-profit organizations of civil society. This book provides an analysis of the machinery of government in Israel, highlighting the inadequacy of the private sector as an alternative and how public management will need to cope with the new challenges and pressures of the 21st century. Providing hitherto unpublished data and analysis in English for the first time, this book gives a comprehensive analysis of the issue of public and private-sector management. The author examines the tasks of the civil service; the legal foundation of the public management machinery; and the profile of civil servants, and looks at the unwieldy budget process; the prevalence (and absence) of regulation; and external and internal mechanisms of oversight. This analysis is balanced by a detailed exposition of Israel's political-administrative culture with its excessive centralization, secrecy, turf protection, and legacy of improvisation, and their effect on policymaking and administration. This comprehensive and detailed examination of public management in Israel will be of great interest both to students and scholars of business and management, government and politics, and to policymakers in the region.

An examination of the current Israeli government, covering public policies such as health, housing and transport. The volume covers the institutional as well as the political and the bureaucratic framework within which public policies have been made and implemented.

The "Israeli History, Politics and Society" series comprises multidisciplinary studies that range from elections and the Yom Kippur war to the search for a true Israeli identity and the various initiatives to foment or prevent the peace process. This volume brings together a set of articles that try to estimate the direction of developments in Israeli public administration: whether ministries will remain under the ambit of the Weberian model, follow the New Public Management model, or move towards a mix of the two. Each essay focuses on a specific factor which may inhibit reforms, such as the weakness of mechanisms for policy control, monitoring and evaluation; lack of co-ordination between the different ministries; lack of effective accountability mechanisms; an administrative culture that is characterized by frequent infringements of moral integrity; a high level of politicization; and a Supreme Court which plays a paramount role by routinely intervening in the practices of public administration as well as in the business of other governmental and non-governmental institutions. Each article probes how these distinctive features of Israeli public administration reflect underlying traits of the nation's history, culture and geography, and gauges the extent to which formal structures provide an indication of how policy-making and programme implementation really operate.

This new volume in the International Library of Policy Analysis series offers a unique look at policy analysis in Israel. Arguing that Israel's status as a developed country that faces major security issues while grappling with frequent demographic changes causes exceptional challenges, the book offers an in-depth exploration of both the history and the current state of policy analysis in the nation. At the same time that the contributors, all well-respected and experienced Israeli scholars, emphasize Israel's distinctive character, they nonetheless show how researchers can draw important lessons from its experience for other countries around the world.

This work offers a critical analysis of the development of public administration in Palestine during the past 150 years.