The Making and Unmaking of Democracy: Lessons From History and World Politics by Theodore K. Rabb & Ezra N. Suleiman

Author:Theodore K. Rabb & Ezra N. Suleiman [Rabb, Theodore K. & Suleiman, Ezra N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Democracy, Political Science, Political Ideologies
ISBN: 9780415933810
Google: P272-xfMquQC
Goodreads: 1408173
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2002-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

is the other half of the same process. Adding together those who defined themselves in the center and those who did not identify themselves along this continuum presents a convincing trend. From about half of the sample up to and including the 1981 elections, this group declined to about a third in 1984, and between a quarter and a fifth in the next four elections.23 Two processes were at work: The electorate had become more and more able to identify its position using the left and right labels, and it had also become more polarized, with fewer center and noniden-tified voters, more left and right identifiers, and growing parity in the size of the blocs.

Using respondents' self-identification in terms of these labels, surveys24 indicate that the left and right demarcation has increased in relevance and coincides with shifts in power distribution for the years 1961 to 1999, the years for which we have data. The figures present the percentages of bloc representation in the Knesset juxtaposed with the answers to the right-left self-identification question in the pre-election polls. It is fascinating to see the three different patterns that emerge from this consideration.

For the left, there was erosion in both the number of Knesset seats won and the percentage of self-identifiers. The 1977 defeat represented the low point, and then there was gradual growth; by 1992, the left was about where it was in 1973. After the introduction of the direct election of the prime minister, the parties of the left declined, but appeared to be replaced by the candidate of the bloc for prime minister: Peres in 1996 and Barak in 1999. The curve of left self-identification roughly follows this pattern as well, except that in the post-1992 period, support for the left increased while support for the parties of the left in the Knesset elections fell.

The right shows a very different pattern. Beginning at very low levels in the early decades, the right and the religious grew in terms of both Knesset seats and self-identifiers, peaking in 1988. Shamir was not capable of sustaining the momentum, and a gradual slide began, continuing through the Netanyahu candidacies for prime minister in 1996 and in 1999. The fortunes of the parties, the candidate for prime minister, and the rate of self-identification almost intersected by 1999.

This analysis offers striking evidence of the transitory nature of the political center in Israeli politics. What the center means, which parties qualify for it, and whether the center exists at all are questions for which there are no straightforward answers. While there is general correspondence between the fortunes of the left and the right in the voting booth and in the self-identification survey data, this is not the case with respect to the center. The proportion of the electorate defining itself as center declined over the years, but there is no simultaneous trend in the voting for center parties.25 From the data, it is clear that center position or identification does not necessarily translate into party choice.

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