הישראלי לדמוקרטיה- מרץ 2017
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AMIR COHEN / REUTERS<br />
governing institutions. According to our<br />
most recent Israeli Democracy Index from<br />
December 2016, only 26.5% of the public<br />
actually trust the Knesset (down from 35%<br />
the year before) and 27% trust the government<br />
(down from 36%). Political parties<br />
fared even worse, with only 14% of the<br />
public expressing trust in them (down from<br />
19%). Almost as alarming, trust in the media<br />
dropped significantly, with only 24% of<br />
the public – down from 35.5% the year before<br />
– responding in the affirmative.<br />
The last year has witnessed an escalation<br />
in hostilities between the media and the<br />
government. Israeli politicians, like their<br />
counterparts around the world, take to social<br />
media to speak directly to the public –<br />
and to blast the media. The media, for its<br />
part, is seen as biased and subjective. Both<br />
sides lose in the process.<br />
Israel’s public space, contentious in the<br />
best of times, has become overtly hostile to<br />
competing ideas and perspectives. A rational<br />
and unifying national conversation about the<br />
truly important issues has been taken hostage<br />
by Facebook. This is the manifestation of a<br />
crisis in our own political system, and in our<br />
own democratic institutions.<br />
So, what needs to be done? Like in the<br />
rest of the world, we cannot turn the clock<br />
back on technological progress. But in all<br />
the spheres mentioned above, more has to<br />
be done to soften the negative consequences<br />
of the rapid changes we are witnessing.<br />
Anti-establishment sentiment and plummeting<br />
trust in democratic institutions can be<br />
remedied by more effective, responsive and<br />
transparent governance (and, indeed, governing<br />
systems). The economic disparities<br />
brought about by globalization have to be<br />
ameliorated by a real emphasis on root causes<br />
and a structural economic reform agenda that<br />
promotes a revitalized social fabric. Both the<br />
political class and the media have to exhibit<br />
greater responsibility, emphasizing fact and<br />
reason over polemics and vitriol. Above all,<br />
the institutions of public life have to return to<br />
a unifying Zionist discourse based on the liberal<br />
and democratic values upon which Israel<br />
was so successfully founded.<br />
THE GOOD news is that the Israel Democracy<br />
Institute (IDI) was founded with this<br />
exact mission in mind: to bolster through<br />
independent research and action the institutions<br />
and values of Israel as a Jewish and<br />
democratic state.<br />
In the economic sphere, we are working<br />
to put forward crucial reforms regarding the<br />
labor market that will hopefully (re)instill<br />
some faith among those who have been left<br />
behind, ensuring their future in a dynamic<br />
and flexible knowledge economy.<br />
Similarly, in the ultra-Orthodox and Arab-Israeli<br />
sectors, we are devising plans for<br />
greater integration – economic, social, normative<br />
and political – to increase overall national<br />
cohesion. With regard to the ultra-Orthodox,<br />
this means standing up for our constitutional<br />
values without giving up on the<br />
fastest growing segment of the Israeli population.<br />
With regard to Arab-Israelis, 20% of<br />
the country, it is imperative that they feel fully<br />
integrated in the national fabric, helping to<br />
undermine both the appeal of extremism (on<br />
their end) and populism/nativism (among<br />
segments of the Jewish-Israeli population).<br />
National security, too, is a major focus of<br />
IDI’s work – as it is increasingly in many<br />
other Western states. We are working toward<br />
recommendations on how to win the<br />
global struggles against terror while, at the<br />
same time, upholding our democratic and<br />
liberal values. Security versus democracy is<br />
a question Israel has long experience with;<br />
it is a balancing act. It is our strongly held<br />
belief, however, that one need not, and must<br />
not, come at the expense of the other.<br />
All of these efforts, in truth, depend to a<br />
large extent on the quality of our political<br />
system. Here, too, we are doubling down on<br />
our efforts to improve the quality of the civil<br />
service, reduce unnecessary governmental<br />
regulations, and combat the scourge of public<br />
corruption – all with the goal of boosting<br />
public trust in government. We are also<br />
pursuing our longstanding plans for political<br />
reform – in the electoral system, political<br />
parties, and Knesset – in order to boost the<br />
stability, performance and quality of government.<br />
All of these will, we believe, counteract<br />
the growing personalization of politics<br />
and the decline in substantive policy debates.<br />
Ultimately, the best antidote to the virus of<br />
anti-establishment sentiment is to improve the<br />
public’s faith in the system, values, and ideas<br />
that govern their lives. More work undoubtedly<br />
needs to be done. But it is only through such<br />
efforts that the crisis in Western liberal democracy<br />
currently unfolding across the globe can<br />
be stopped and, in time, reversed. <br />
Yohanan Plesner is president of the Israel<br />
Democracy Institute.<br />
DEMOCRACY 3.0 APRIL <strong>2017</strong><br />
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