The Individual’s Level of Globalism and Citizen Commitment to the State: The Tendency to Evade Military Service in Israel

Abstract

The article inquires about the role of globalization on individual commitment to the state by studying the tendency of high-school students to evade obligatory military service in Israel. We define five dimensions of the Individual's Level of Globalism (ILG) and examine their impact on degrees of military service commitment. We suggest a new non-dichotomous approach by considering, in addition to full evasion and full commitment to combat service, the option of quasi-evasion: to serve, but in a risk-free role. Investigating a sample of 2,705 11th and 12th grade students, we find that quasi-evasion is widespread, involving 54% of all respondents and 40% of all males. More ‘globalized’ individuals, those lacking active local ties and those with high levels of consumerism show a significantly greater tendency to evade military service. Counter to our expectations, students with lower levels of individualism also show a significantly greater tendency to evade military service.