uri Ram | Ben Gurion University (original) (raw)
Papers by uri Ram
Constellations, Dec 7, 2007
Pierre Rosanvallon has emerged as arguably the most significant thinker among those in France dur... more Pierre Rosanvallon has emerged as arguably the most significant thinker among those in France during the 1970s who pioneered a wide-ranging "return to the political." Currently Chair in the modern and contemporary history of the political at the Collège de France, his importance stems from his willingness to consider the continuing emancipatory possibilities of democracy in light of the tensions and contradictions that have made up its modern history. Samuel Moyn has introduced, partially translated, and thoughtfully edited this, the first collection of Rosanvallon's writings throughout his career to appear in English. Though written over the past thirty years, the essays read together form a coherent picture of both Rosanvallon's trajectory and where he thinks democracy has been and is going. The first two essays, including Rosanvallon's 2002 inaugural lecture at the Collège, lay out his overall program and touch on methodological considerations. He describes his philosophical history of the political as a "total history" (65), a sort of queen of the human sciences who gathers society, economics, politics, and intellectual life into her train. In lesser hands the program might be accused of unwieldy eclecticism. Fortunately, Rosanvallon's perceptive and rigorous analyses more than compensate for the sort of meta-theoretical and methodological issues that are usually fascinating but rarely satisfying. The substantive heart of the collection is organized around three principal thematic poles: post-1789 French political culture, market liberalism, and the future of democracy. The French Revolution remains a foundational and structuring event that has oriented the flow of political life over the past two centuries. More specifically, modern French political culture has grappled with unresolved (and unresolvable) dilemmas related to questions of unity, voluntarism, and rationalism as they in turn have related to popular sovereignty, representation, mediation, and liberal-democratic articulation. The revolutionary democracy of the 1790s foregrounded the paradoxical status of "the people" both as the source of political power and as an abstract entity that could not be fully represented. Yet the political vision of a polity coinciding with itself (Jean-Jacques Rousseau's General Will exemplified the model) did not measure up to or square with social reality, whose complexity, internal divisions, and diversity defied and evaded projected unification. The radical voluntarism of the revolutionary period expressed frantic efforts to institute a new social and political form, from the spontaneous assertion of the-people-as-crowd to the contradictory dynamics of the Terror (which witnessed representatives' claims to incarnate the people and heal the divide between representation and reality, meanwhile denying that they were engaged in representation at all). In other words, immediacy emerged as an element of French political culture during the Revolution, targeting at first the mediatory institutions of the Old Regime but then giving rise to overriding suspicions toward the kinds of mediations that characterize liberal-democratic societies. The pure assertion of immediate will was, of course, intended to fuse the collective in redemptive, egalitarian wholeness. One could find these dynamics at work again in debates on universal suffrage during the 1830s and 1840s when "republican utopianism" (108) expressed a fantasy of transparency, socio-political coincidence, and eventually economic equality-all of which revealed illiberal tendencies. Universal suffrage, then, was portrayed less as a decisionistic process and more as a ritualized, celebratory expression of a socio-political unity presumed
Bulletin of Latin American Research, 2009
Liverpool University Press eBooks, Jun 1, 2014
The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization, Jun 22, 2017
Duke University Press eBooks, Jul 21, 2003
Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften, Apr 1, 1994
Ben-Zion Dinur und seine Zeit* Vier Jahrtausende Geschichte sind sehr mächtig, wenn sie in den He... more Ben-Zion Dinur und seine Zeit* Vier Jahrtausende Geschichte sind sehr mächtig, wenn sie in den Herzen (des Volkes) leben; sie sind wertlos, wenn sie nur in Büchern aufgezeichnet sind. Wenn wir die Erben Am Israels, des Volkes Israels sein wollen, so müssen wir diese vier Jahrtausende in das Herz jedes einzelnen einpflanzen. Die Aufgabe ist schwer. Ich tat mein Bestes, um sie zu erfüllen. Ben-Zion Dinur 1 Ein Zeichen der Formierung von Nation aus einer Protonation ist die Verlagerung des Zentrums des kollektiven Gedächtnisses vom Tempel und seiner Priesterschaft zur Universität und ihrer wissenschaftlichen Community. Anthony D. Smith 2 Narration und Erfindung der Nation Nationen sind, nach Benedikt Andersons treffender Formulierung, imaginierte politische Gemeinschaften. 3 Der verwirrendste Aspekt von Nation ist, daß sie als genuin modernes Gebilde dazu tendiert, sich Traditionen zu geben, die ihr die * Die vorliegende Studie wurde durch ein Forschungsstipendium des Wiener Seminar 1992/93 der Tel Aviv University unter der gemeinsamen Leitung von Prof. Shulamith Volkov und Prof. Israel Gershoni ermöglicht. Meinen Freunden Avner Ben Arnos und Natan Sznaider danke ich für ihre hilfreichen und anregenden Kommentare zu früheren Versionen dieses Aufsatzes.
Duke University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2020
The Case of Israel National identity is hegemonic among the population of Jewish descent in Israe... more The Case of Israel National identity is hegemonic among the population of Jewish descent in Israel. Zionism, modern Jewish nationalism, originated in eastern Europe in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. A national movement without a territory, Zionism naturally adopted the ethnic, or integrative, type of nationalism that prevailed in the region (for a basic typology of nationalism see Smith 1986: 79-84). In Palestine the diasporic Jewish nationalism turned into a settler-colonial nationalism. The state of Israel inherited the
Constellations, Sep 1, 1999
Observers of Israeli society are struck by the turmoil it has evinced in the 1990s. This study pr... more Observers of Israeli society are struck by the turmoil it has evinced in the 1990s. This study proposes a new perspective for the analysis of Israel based on the opposition of the global and the local. The study advances in three steps: i) it presents in outline the concepts of "post-nationalism" and "neo-nationalism"; ii) it applies these concepts schematically to the case of Israel; and iii) it explores in particular the two polar positions of the new terrain of identity within the dominant group in Israel: neo-Zionism and post-Zionism. On the Concepts of Post-Nationalism and Neo-Nationalism Broadly speaking, post-nationalism is a phenomenon of the late twentieth century, just as nationalism was a phenomenon of the late nineteenth century. In order to elaborate the concept of post-nationalism, two pairs of seminal terms may be of use: one comes from the theoretical arsenal of the last fin-de-siècle, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft; the other is taken from the theoretical arsenal of our own time, the local and the global. (Both pairs are obviously ideal typical poles in a conceptual continuum; "reality" exposes many mixed and blurred combinations.) As the founders of sociology grappled with the Great Transformation, associated with industrialization, commodification, state-and empire-building, as well as with secularization, differentiation, and rationalization, they came to see all these related phenomena as part of a general process of modernization; their general conclusions about its significance were condensed in the conceptual pair, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. This seminal terminology came of course from the pen of Tönnies, but Marx, Durkheim, and Weber, each in his own terms and with his specific accent, shared this general view. The Gemeinschaft-Gesellschaft distinction underlies the overarching dichotomies of classical sociology, such as Marx's feudalism vs. capitalism, Durkheim's mechanic vs. organic solidarity, and Weber's traditional vs. rational legitimation. Similarly, the collective sociological wisdom concerning the Great Transformation which is underway today, associated with economic post-industrialization and cultural post-modernization, may be condensed under the overarching conceptualization of the local vs. the global, or what Benjamin Barber calls Jihad vs. McWorld. 1 These two pairs of concepts frame the trajectory of nationalism between the late nineteenth and the late twentieth century. To put it bluntly, in the late nineteenth
Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 8, 2019
This chapter sketches the evolution of the cleavages perspective in Israel and offers a sociohist... more This chapter sketches the evolution of the cleavages perspective in Israel and offers a sociohistorical overview of four major cleavages in Israeli society: the national one between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs, the cultural one between secular and religious Jews, the socioeconomic (or class) one between rich and poor, and the ethnic one between Ashkenazi Jews and Mizrahi Jews (or “Westerners” versus “Orientals”). The discussion highlights the measure of coalescence among the cleavages and their compound political impact. It underscores the role played by the cleavages in the “upheaval” transition of governmental power in 1977, from Left (Labor) to Right (Likud), and in the consolidation of a neoliberal and a neocolonial political culture in Israel since that time.
Preface: It Could be Any City. Introduction: The Globalization Paradigm in Israel 1. Globalizatio... more Preface: It Could be Any City. Introduction: The Globalization Paradigm in Israel 1. Globalization 2. Polarization 3. Post-Fordization 4. Americanization 5. McDonaldization 6. Postnationalization. Conclusion: Israel as Studied by the Globalization Paradigm
Constellations, Sep 1, 1999
This special section on Israel marks the Jubilee of the State of Israel. In its fiftieth year of ... more This special section on Israel marks the Jubilee of the State of Israel. In its fiftieth year of independence, Israel may celebrate many achievements, yet at the same time it is disgraced by the continuous oppression of the Palestinians. Moreover, the "old regime" in Israel is today challenged by social, cultural, and political rifts which at times assume an ugly and violent face. It seems that as the twentieth century comes to a close, Israeli society is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Israel of the next century will be most different from the one that has existed hitherto. With the decline of older structures of dominance and foci of identity-pre-modern Jewish communalism and modern Zionist nationalism-a battle is fiercely waged in Israel between two emergent alternatives which attempt to determine the gist of the "new regime": a globalist, civic, post-Zionist agenda, objectively advanced by the logic of world market "McWorld," and a localist, ethnic, neo-Zionist agenda, subjectively advanced by the logic of fundamentalist Jewish "Jihad." McWorld with and against Jihad. This "glocalization" of Israel challenges both left and right. Everyone is looking forward to it, but no one welcomes it in its entirety. The left faces the following contradiction: glocalization advances democracy in Israel by promoting civic equality. Yet, simultaneously it advances economic liberalization and with it social inequality. And so, while market globalization is today the major force advancing peaceful coexistence in the Middle East, it is also the major instigator of social instability and reactive, localist, ethno-religious fundamentalism. The right faces a parallel perplexity: glocalization advances economic liberalization in Israel and paves the way for foreign investment; it promotes the "free market." Yet, simultaneously, glocalization advances the Americanization of Israeli culture and the pluralization of cultures and lifestyles in Israel, and these are, as is well known, the foremost enemies of nationalism. The left may end up with more political democracy but less social equality; the right, with more capitalism but less national identification. Each may gain something and lose something. In the face of the challenges of glocalization, the old left, the new right, and the
Nations and Nationalism, Oct 1, 2005
He is the editor of The State of the Nation: Ernest Gellner and the Theory of Nationalism, and th... more He is the editor of The State of the Nation: Ernest Gellner and the Theory of Nationalism, and the author of a number of books on the state, civil society and social theory. His forthcoming publications include Ernest Gellner (co-author Brendan O'Leary) and The Nation-State in Question (co-edited with T.V. Paul and G.J. Ikenberry).
Jews and Leftist Politics
TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology, Apr 26, 2010
Proto -sociological studies, which related to the nascent Jewish Israeli society, were produced s... more Proto -sociological studies, which related to the nascent Jewish Israeli society, were produced since the late nineteenth century. Three genres of early social science were practiced by in the period 1882–1948: social analysis produced by organic intellectuals, or ideologues, of the Jewish-Zionist political movements; research cond ucted by experts on colonization , as assigned by institutional agencies; and the academic conceptual and historical work of migrant Jewish scholars affiliated with HUJI (founded in 1925).
Capital & Class, 2016
Most of social sciences’ research on Israel emphasizes ethnicity, status, nationality, identity, ... more Most of social sciences’ research on Israel emphasizes ethnicity, status, nationality, identity, gender or coloniality as the central explanatory concepts. This article argues that in order to understand the emergence (as well as the limitations) of phenomena such as the 2011 social protest, the analysis must incorporate a class perspective. In answering questions such as which social groups initiated and supported the protest, what the socio-economic causes of the protest were and what explains the characteristic political patterns of the protest, the article proposes the following theses: (1) The protest was launched and led by the ‘bohemian-bourgeois’ sector of the middle class, but was joined by other groups; (2) The protest was the first large-scale display of class resistance to the post-Fordist, neoliberal socio-economic system; and (3) The protest manifested the emergence of a new kind of ‘post-postmodern’ politics, in response to both the representation crisis of the politi...
Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen, 2005
Mecca-Cola ist ein süßes Erfrischungsgetränk, das Geschmack und Aussehen der weltberühmten US-Mar... more Mecca-Cola ist ein süßes Erfrischungsgetränk, das Geschmack und Aussehen der weltberühmten US-Marke Coca-Cola nachahmt. Die Erfinder der Marke wollen arabischen und muslimischen Kunden eine Alternative zum amerikanischen Produkt bieten, das für viele von ihnen amerikanischen kulturellen Kapitalismus und in letzter Zeit auch amerikanischen Imperialismus symbolisiert. Das eigentliche Konzept von Mecca-Cola ist faszinierend. Es bringt zwei Gegensätze zusammen, die normalerweise in der Sozialtheorie als dichotome Widersprüche gesehen werden. Das erste Paar betrifft das Authentische (im Sinne von original, autonom) und das Unechte, Künstliche oder Reproduzierte. Zugrunde liegt die Frage nach der Lebensfähigkeit von ursprünglichen Gemeinschaften und Kulturen, danach, wie sie ihre Identität bewahren oder trotz kapitalistischer Kommerzialisierung einer Unterwanderung von außen widerstehen können. Das erste Gegensatzpaar lässt sich auf den Punkt bringen als Authentizität' gegen Kommerzialisierung.
The Middle East Journal, Apr 1, 2008
Democratizing The Hegemonic State: Political Transformation in the Age of Identity, by Ilan Peleg... more Democratizing The Hegemonic State: Political Transformation in the Age of Identity, by Ilan Peleg. Cambridge, UK and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. viii + 240 pages. $76. Reviewed by Uri Ram In Democratizing The Hhegemonic State: Political Transformation in the Age of Identity, Ilan Peleg analyzes two Middle Eastern countries, Turkey and Israel, which are employed as cases in a comparative study of the transformation of "hegemonic states." Peleg defines "hegemonic states" as polities in which one ethnic group controls state institutions and policies and utilizes its domination to promote its material and cultural interests more or less exclusively. Both countries belong also to a sub-category of hegemonic states - majoritarian hegemonic states, where the dominant group constitutes the majority of the population (the opposite sub-category being minoritarian hegemonic states, such as South Africa under apartheid). In the cases of Turkey and Israel, the state is deeply committed to the concerns of one ethno-national category (the Turkish and the Jewish, respectively), and thus in various ways discriminates against at least one significant minority group - the Kurds in Turkey (and many other minorities - by some accounts, there are 51 distinct minority groups residing there; p. 170), and the Palestinian-Arabs in Israel. Turkey, as is well known, was constructed as a national republic by a new military and secular elite during the 1920s, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and Israel was likewise established in 1948 in a formerly Ottoman region, by a socialist and secular elite. The two countries differ significantly in their "hegemonic" national policies: Turkey has attempted an enforced inclusion of its citizenry, and tried to "Turkify" it, while repressing different languages and identities. In contrast, Israel has preferred a policy of discriminatory exclusion, wherein the minority retains its Arab language and identity (though more as a religious than as a national category). Peleg summarizes this distinction by referring to Turkey's policy as an inclusivist state-centrism and to Israel's as an exclusivist ethno-centrism. One can say that while Turkey tried to "Turkify" the Kurdish population, Israel cared more about the "Judaization" of Arab lands. In recent years, the policies of both these countries towards their minorities is being challenged, from within as well as from abroad. In Peleg's view, both countries have introduced some mild changes in their operation "while maintaining the essence of their polities" (p. 169). In Turkey, the rules of the game have been challenged since the 1980s by both violent Kurdish resistance and the pressure of the European Union. Since the 1990s, the ban on expressions of Kurdish culture (i.e., language, names, and newspapers) gradually has been lifted and an incremental recognition of Kurdish identity has been underway. In addition, with the rise of political Islamism, the secular Kemalist ideology has come under vigorous challenge. "It seems that Turkey had begun to accept, willy-nilly and belatedly, its heterogeneity," writes Peleg (p. 171). In his estimation, Turkey is undergoing some measure of liberalization in its civil culture, yet without making explicit constitutional changes. Similarly, Pelge believes that Israel is experiencing a certain process of openness towards the Arab minority, while at the same time the essence of the Jewish domination over the state "has not changed substantially and is unlikely to do so in the foreseeable future" (p. 174) and thus the regime is bound to remain "an illiberal democracy with inherent flaws" (p. 176). Peleg notes the contrasting pressures of ethno-nationalists and of democratic liberals in contemporary Israel and aptly comments that although most media attention is given to the situation in the occupied territories of 1967 "the battle royal in Israel is about the essence of the state today and in the future rather than about the final status of the relationship between Israelis and West-Bankers" (p. …
Constellations, Dec 7, 2007
Pierre Rosanvallon has emerged as arguably the most significant thinker among those in France dur... more Pierre Rosanvallon has emerged as arguably the most significant thinker among those in France during the 1970s who pioneered a wide-ranging "return to the political." Currently Chair in the modern and contemporary history of the political at the Collège de France, his importance stems from his willingness to consider the continuing emancipatory possibilities of democracy in light of the tensions and contradictions that have made up its modern history. Samuel Moyn has introduced, partially translated, and thoughtfully edited this, the first collection of Rosanvallon's writings throughout his career to appear in English. Though written over the past thirty years, the essays read together form a coherent picture of both Rosanvallon's trajectory and where he thinks democracy has been and is going. The first two essays, including Rosanvallon's 2002 inaugural lecture at the Collège, lay out his overall program and touch on methodological considerations. He describes his philosophical history of the political as a "total history" (65), a sort of queen of the human sciences who gathers society, economics, politics, and intellectual life into her train. In lesser hands the program might be accused of unwieldy eclecticism. Fortunately, Rosanvallon's perceptive and rigorous analyses more than compensate for the sort of meta-theoretical and methodological issues that are usually fascinating but rarely satisfying. The substantive heart of the collection is organized around three principal thematic poles: post-1789 French political culture, market liberalism, and the future of democracy. The French Revolution remains a foundational and structuring event that has oriented the flow of political life over the past two centuries. More specifically, modern French political culture has grappled with unresolved (and unresolvable) dilemmas related to questions of unity, voluntarism, and rationalism as they in turn have related to popular sovereignty, representation, mediation, and liberal-democratic articulation. The revolutionary democracy of the 1790s foregrounded the paradoxical status of "the people" both as the source of political power and as an abstract entity that could not be fully represented. Yet the political vision of a polity coinciding with itself (Jean-Jacques Rousseau's General Will exemplified the model) did not measure up to or square with social reality, whose complexity, internal divisions, and diversity defied and evaded projected unification. The radical voluntarism of the revolutionary period expressed frantic efforts to institute a new social and political form, from the spontaneous assertion of the-people-as-crowd to the contradictory dynamics of the Terror (which witnessed representatives' claims to incarnate the people and heal the divide between representation and reality, meanwhile denying that they were engaged in representation at all). In other words, immediacy emerged as an element of French political culture during the Revolution, targeting at first the mediatory institutions of the Old Regime but then giving rise to overriding suspicions toward the kinds of mediations that characterize liberal-democratic societies. The pure assertion of immediate will was, of course, intended to fuse the collective in redemptive, egalitarian wholeness. One could find these dynamics at work again in debates on universal suffrage during the 1830s and 1840s when "republican utopianism" (108) expressed a fantasy of transparency, socio-political coincidence, and eventually economic equality-all of which revealed illiberal tendencies. Universal suffrage, then, was portrayed less as a decisionistic process and more as a ritualized, celebratory expression of a socio-political unity presumed
Bulletin of Latin American Research, 2009
Liverpool University Press eBooks, Jun 1, 2014
The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization, Jun 22, 2017
Duke University Press eBooks, Jul 21, 2003
Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften, Apr 1, 1994
Ben-Zion Dinur und seine Zeit* Vier Jahrtausende Geschichte sind sehr mächtig, wenn sie in den He... more Ben-Zion Dinur und seine Zeit* Vier Jahrtausende Geschichte sind sehr mächtig, wenn sie in den Herzen (des Volkes) leben; sie sind wertlos, wenn sie nur in Büchern aufgezeichnet sind. Wenn wir die Erben Am Israels, des Volkes Israels sein wollen, so müssen wir diese vier Jahrtausende in das Herz jedes einzelnen einpflanzen. Die Aufgabe ist schwer. Ich tat mein Bestes, um sie zu erfüllen. Ben-Zion Dinur 1 Ein Zeichen der Formierung von Nation aus einer Protonation ist die Verlagerung des Zentrums des kollektiven Gedächtnisses vom Tempel und seiner Priesterschaft zur Universität und ihrer wissenschaftlichen Community. Anthony D. Smith 2 Narration und Erfindung der Nation Nationen sind, nach Benedikt Andersons treffender Formulierung, imaginierte politische Gemeinschaften. 3 Der verwirrendste Aspekt von Nation ist, daß sie als genuin modernes Gebilde dazu tendiert, sich Traditionen zu geben, die ihr die * Die vorliegende Studie wurde durch ein Forschungsstipendium des Wiener Seminar 1992/93 der Tel Aviv University unter der gemeinsamen Leitung von Prof. Shulamith Volkov und Prof. Israel Gershoni ermöglicht. Meinen Freunden Avner Ben Arnos und Natan Sznaider danke ich für ihre hilfreichen und anregenden Kommentare zu früheren Versionen dieses Aufsatzes.
Duke University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2020
The Case of Israel National identity is hegemonic among the population of Jewish descent in Israe... more The Case of Israel National identity is hegemonic among the population of Jewish descent in Israel. Zionism, modern Jewish nationalism, originated in eastern Europe in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. A national movement without a territory, Zionism naturally adopted the ethnic, or integrative, type of nationalism that prevailed in the region (for a basic typology of nationalism see Smith 1986: 79-84). In Palestine the diasporic Jewish nationalism turned into a settler-colonial nationalism. The state of Israel inherited the
Constellations, Sep 1, 1999
Observers of Israeli society are struck by the turmoil it has evinced in the 1990s. This study pr... more Observers of Israeli society are struck by the turmoil it has evinced in the 1990s. This study proposes a new perspective for the analysis of Israel based on the opposition of the global and the local. The study advances in three steps: i) it presents in outline the concepts of "post-nationalism" and "neo-nationalism"; ii) it applies these concepts schematically to the case of Israel; and iii) it explores in particular the two polar positions of the new terrain of identity within the dominant group in Israel: neo-Zionism and post-Zionism. On the Concepts of Post-Nationalism and Neo-Nationalism Broadly speaking, post-nationalism is a phenomenon of the late twentieth century, just as nationalism was a phenomenon of the late nineteenth century. In order to elaborate the concept of post-nationalism, two pairs of seminal terms may be of use: one comes from the theoretical arsenal of the last fin-de-siècle, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft; the other is taken from the theoretical arsenal of our own time, the local and the global. (Both pairs are obviously ideal typical poles in a conceptual continuum; "reality" exposes many mixed and blurred combinations.) As the founders of sociology grappled with the Great Transformation, associated with industrialization, commodification, state-and empire-building, as well as with secularization, differentiation, and rationalization, they came to see all these related phenomena as part of a general process of modernization; their general conclusions about its significance were condensed in the conceptual pair, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. This seminal terminology came of course from the pen of Tönnies, but Marx, Durkheim, and Weber, each in his own terms and with his specific accent, shared this general view. The Gemeinschaft-Gesellschaft distinction underlies the overarching dichotomies of classical sociology, such as Marx's feudalism vs. capitalism, Durkheim's mechanic vs. organic solidarity, and Weber's traditional vs. rational legitimation. Similarly, the collective sociological wisdom concerning the Great Transformation which is underway today, associated with economic post-industrialization and cultural post-modernization, may be condensed under the overarching conceptualization of the local vs. the global, or what Benjamin Barber calls Jihad vs. McWorld. 1 These two pairs of concepts frame the trajectory of nationalism between the late nineteenth and the late twentieth century. To put it bluntly, in the late nineteenth
Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 8, 2019
This chapter sketches the evolution of the cleavages perspective in Israel and offers a sociohist... more This chapter sketches the evolution of the cleavages perspective in Israel and offers a sociohistorical overview of four major cleavages in Israeli society: the national one between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs, the cultural one between secular and religious Jews, the socioeconomic (or class) one between rich and poor, and the ethnic one between Ashkenazi Jews and Mizrahi Jews (or “Westerners” versus “Orientals”). The discussion highlights the measure of coalescence among the cleavages and their compound political impact. It underscores the role played by the cleavages in the “upheaval” transition of governmental power in 1977, from Left (Labor) to Right (Likud), and in the consolidation of a neoliberal and a neocolonial political culture in Israel since that time.
Preface: It Could be Any City. Introduction: The Globalization Paradigm in Israel 1. Globalizatio... more Preface: It Could be Any City. Introduction: The Globalization Paradigm in Israel 1. Globalization 2. Polarization 3. Post-Fordization 4. Americanization 5. McDonaldization 6. Postnationalization. Conclusion: Israel as Studied by the Globalization Paradigm
Constellations, Sep 1, 1999
This special section on Israel marks the Jubilee of the State of Israel. In its fiftieth year of ... more This special section on Israel marks the Jubilee of the State of Israel. In its fiftieth year of independence, Israel may celebrate many achievements, yet at the same time it is disgraced by the continuous oppression of the Palestinians. Moreover, the "old regime" in Israel is today challenged by social, cultural, and political rifts which at times assume an ugly and violent face. It seems that as the twentieth century comes to a close, Israeli society is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Israel of the next century will be most different from the one that has existed hitherto. With the decline of older structures of dominance and foci of identity-pre-modern Jewish communalism and modern Zionist nationalism-a battle is fiercely waged in Israel between two emergent alternatives which attempt to determine the gist of the "new regime": a globalist, civic, post-Zionist agenda, objectively advanced by the logic of world market "McWorld," and a localist, ethnic, neo-Zionist agenda, subjectively advanced by the logic of fundamentalist Jewish "Jihad." McWorld with and against Jihad. This "glocalization" of Israel challenges both left and right. Everyone is looking forward to it, but no one welcomes it in its entirety. The left faces the following contradiction: glocalization advances democracy in Israel by promoting civic equality. Yet, simultaneously it advances economic liberalization and with it social inequality. And so, while market globalization is today the major force advancing peaceful coexistence in the Middle East, it is also the major instigator of social instability and reactive, localist, ethno-religious fundamentalism. The right faces a parallel perplexity: glocalization advances economic liberalization in Israel and paves the way for foreign investment; it promotes the "free market." Yet, simultaneously, glocalization advances the Americanization of Israeli culture and the pluralization of cultures and lifestyles in Israel, and these are, as is well known, the foremost enemies of nationalism. The left may end up with more political democracy but less social equality; the right, with more capitalism but less national identification. Each may gain something and lose something. In the face of the challenges of glocalization, the old left, the new right, and the
Nations and Nationalism, Oct 1, 2005
He is the editor of The State of the Nation: Ernest Gellner and the Theory of Nationalism, and th... more He is the editor of The State of the Nation: Ernest Gellner and the Theory of Nationalism, and the author of a number of books on the state, civil society and social theory. His forthcoming publications include Ernest Gellner (co-author Brendan O'Leary) and The Nation-State in Question (co-edited with T.V. Paul and G.J. Ikenberry).
Jews and Leftist Politics
TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology, Apr 26, 2010
Proto -sociological studies, which related to the nascent Jewish Israeli society, were produced s... more Proto -sociological studies, which related to the nascent Jewish Israeli society, were produced since the late nineteenth century. Three genres of early social science were practiced by in the period 1882–1948: social analysis produced by organic intellectuals, or ideologues, of the Jewish-Zionist political movements; research cond ucted by experts on colonization , as assigned by institutional agencies; and the academic conceptual and historical work of migrant Jewish scholars affiliated with HUJI (founded in 1925).
Capital & Class, 2016
Most of social sciences’ research on Israel emphasizes ethnicity, status, nationality, identity, ... more Most of social sciences’ research on Israel emphasizes ethnicity, status, nationality, identity, gender or coloniality as the central explanatory concepts. This article argues that in order to understand the emergence (as well as the limitations) of phenomena such as the 2011 social protest, the analysis must incorporate a class perspective. In answering questions such as which social groups initiated and supported the protest, what the socio-economic causes of the protest were and what explains the characteristic political patterns of the protest, the article proposes the following theses: (1) The protest was launched and led by the ‘bohemian-bourgeois’ sector of the middle class, but was joined by other groups; (2) The protest was the first large-scale display of class resistance to the post-Fordist, neoliberal socio-economic system; and (3) The protest manifested the emergence of a new kind of ‘post-postmodern’ politics, in response to both the representation crisis of the politi...
Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen, 2005
Mecca-Cola ist ein süßes Erfrischungsgetränk, das Geschmack und Aussehen der weltberühmten US-Mar... more Mecca-Cola ist ein süßes Erfrischungsgetränk, das Geschmack und Aussehen der weltberühmten US-Marke Coca-Cola nachahmt. Die Erfinder der Marke wollen arabischen und muslimischen Kunden eine Alternative zum amerikanischen Produkt bieten, das für viele von ihnen amerikanischen kulturellen Kapitalismus und in letzter Zeit auch amerikanischen Imperialismus symbolisiert. Das eigentliche Konzept von Mecca-Cola ist faszinierend. Es bringt zwei Gegensätze zusammen, die normalerweise in der Sozialtheorie als dichotome Widersprüche gesehen werden. Das erste Paar betrifft das Authentische (im Sinne von original, autonom) und das Unechte, Künstliche oder Reproduzierte. Zugrunde liegt die Frage nach der Lebensfähigkeit von ursprünglichen Gemeinschaften und Kulturen, danach, wie sie ihre Identität bewahren oder trotz kapitalistischer Kommerzialisierung einer Unterwanderung von außen widerstehen können. Das erste Gegensatzpaar lässt sich auf den Punkt bringen als Authentizität' gegen Kommerzialisierung.
The Middle East Journal, Apr 1, 2008
Democratizing The Hegemonic State: Political Transformation in the Age of Identity, by Ilan Peleg... more Democratizing The Hegemonic State: Political Transformation in the Age of Identity, by Ilan Peleg. Cambridge, UK and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. viii + 240 pages. $76. Reviewed by Uri Ram In Democratizing The Hhegemonic State: Political Transformation in the Age of Identity, Ilan Peleg analyzes two Middle Eastern countries, Turkey and Israel, which are employed as cases in a comparative study of the transformation of "hegemonic states." Peleg defines "hegemonic states" as polities in which one ethnic group controls state institutions and policies and utilizes its domination to promote its material and cultural interests more or less exclusively. Both countries belong also to a sub-category of hegemonic states - majoritarian hegemonic states, where the dominant group constitutes the majority of the population (the opposite sub-category being minoritarian hegemonic states, such as South Africa under apartheid). In the cases of Turkey and Israel, the state is deeply committed to the concerns of one ethno-national category (the Turkish and the Jewish, respectively), and thus in various ways discriminates against at least one significant minority group - the Kurds in Turkey (and many other minorities - by some accounts, there are 51 distinct minority groups residing there; p. 170), and the Palestinian-Arabs in Israel. Turkey, as is well known, was constructed as a national republic by a new military and secular elite during the 1920s, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and Israel was likewise established in 1948 in a formerly Ottoman region, by a socialist and secular elite. The two countries differ significantly in their "hegemonic" national policies: Turkey has attempted an enforced inclusion of its citizenry, and tried to "Turkify" it, while repressing different languages and identities. In contrast, Israel has preferred a policy of discriminatory exclusion, wherein the minority retains its Arab language and identity (though more as a religious than as a national category). Peleg summarizes this distinction by referring to Turkey's policy as an inclusivist state-centrism and to Israel's as an exclusivist ethno-centrism. One can say that while Turkey tried to "Turkify" the Kurdish population, Israel cared more about the "Judaization" of Arab lands. In recent years, the policies of both these countries towards their minorities is being challenged, from within as well as from abroad. In Peleg's view, both countries have introduced some mild changes in their operation "while maintaining the essence of their polities" (p. 169). In Turkey, the rules of the game have been challenged since the 1980s by both violent Kurdish resistance and the pressure of the European Union. Since the 1990s, the ban on expressions of Kurdish culture (i.e., language, names, and newspapers) gradually has been lifted and an incremental recognition of Kurdish identity has been underway. In addition, with the rise of political Islamism, the secular Kemalist ideology has come under vigorous challenge. "It seems that Turkey had begun to accept, willy-nilly and belatedly, its heterogeneity," writes Peleg (p. 171). In his estimation, Turkey is undergoing some measure of liberalization in its civil culture, yet without making explicit constitutional changes. Similarly, Pelge believes that Israel is experiencing a certain process of openness towards the Arab minority, while at the same time the essence of the Jewish domination over the state "has not changed substantially and is unlikely to do so in the foreseeable future" (p. 174) and thus the regime is bound to remain "an illiberal democracy with inherent flaws" (p. 176). Peleg notes the contrasting pressures of ethno-nationalists and of democratic liberals in contemporary Israel and aptly comments that although most media attention is given to the situation in the occupied territories of 1967 "the battle royal in Israel is about the essence of the state today and in the future rather than about the final status of the relationship between Israelis and West-Bankers" (p. …