The state‒religion issue in Israel: is the consociational model still alive?

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article seeks to determine the accuracy of predictions made by researchers of Israeli politics regarding the disappearance of the consociational model in state‒religion relations, to be replaced by the emergence of a crisis model, which threatens the stability of Israeli democracy. Using a unique methodological tool, based on the relative importance assigned to the issue in the platforms of the parties, we followed the positioning of the issue on the agenda over the years, and investigated whether it was becoming more prominent since the 1990s as an indication of the crumbling of the consociational model. The findings revealed, indeed, that in the late 1990s the tension around religion‒state relations reached its peak and was reflected in a higher rank order on the agenda. However, during the twenty-first century, the tension has not been rising, while the 2015 elections show a dramatic decline in the issue’s positioning on the agenda, which refutes the researchers’ forecast.