Does Democracy Tame the Radicals? Lessons from Israel's Jewish Religious Political Parties

Abstract

This article considers how participation in the democratic political process influences the platforms and strategies of Israel's Jewish religious political parties. Focusing on the religious political parties that contested the March 2006 election in Israel, the article suggests that party ideology strongly influences the extent to which Israel's religious political parties have taken up moderate positions regarding Israel's internal and external security policies, especially with regard to religion and state issues; the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; and Israel's withdrawal from the post-1967 occupied territories. Ideology, however, is not determinative – regular participation in the electoral process and access to government resources has over time also worked to moderate initially hardline party positions. The fact that religious political parties typically serve as pivotal parties in Israel's governing coalitions accounts for why these parties, and their constituents, have largely avoided extremism. As a result of the integration of religious political parties into Israel's proportional representation, multi-party system, extremist violence in Israel has tended to be extra-parliamentary.