Structural Models of Injustice and Illegalism in Israel

Abstract

The question of whether a citizen is obliged to obey the law has occupied scholarly thinking since the days of Socrates. Thus, rarely has the question been examined empirically. Based on a survey of 1866 adults, citizens of the state of Israel, this study attempts to construct causal models linking socioeconomic status to subjective measures of injustice, and further to indicators of illegalism and disobedience among Jews and Arabs. LISREL analysis has been found a useful tool to construct the empirical models that measure how members of the two ethnic communities relate to the boundaries of the “prima facie obligation” to obey the law. Findings show that those who have no trust in one part of the legal system, will also have no trust in the rest of the system which, in turn, serves to legitimize taking the law into one's own hand.