The 2022 Israeli elections stand out as a turning point in the country’s political history. Following a period of unprecedented political instability, the right-wing government formed following the elections—Benjamin Netanyahu's sixth government—was the most radical in Israel’s history.This book examines the 2022 Israeli elections through various theoretical perspectives and diverse research designs and data sources. The first part scrutinizes various aspects of Israeli democracy related to the elections. These include ideological and affective polarization, cleavages, voter turnout, involvement of citizens and civil organizations in election campaigns and the nature of the government that was established following the elections. The second part of the book presents studies of parties that participated in the elections: those that declined (Labor), those that ascended (Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit), and those that ascertained their power (United Torah Judaism and Shas). A valuable addition to the Elections in Israel series, the book—written by leading scholars of Israeli politics and society—touches on key themes, including political personalization, polarization, populism, the radical right, party decline and adaptation and democratic backsliding.The book will be of particular interest to students and researchers of Israeli politics and society—especially relating to the events of 2023 and the war in Gaza—as well as to social scientists interested in these political phenomena and their effects on democratic countries worldwide.

The ongoing questions that ethno-nationally divided urban communities face concerning human rights are often exacerbated by large-scale events that challenge everyday local dynamics, such as wars and pandemics. This study, situated within discussions concerning the “localization” of human rights, explores what factors lead city-zens (citizens of the city) to pin expectations of safeguarding human rights on the local authority, focusing on urban identity, ethno-national identity, and the city’s ethno-national heterogeneity. We explore Israel’s homogeneous and mixed (Jewish-Palestinian) cities, wherein city-zens navigate their conflicting identities amidst eruptions of the long-standing conflict, as demonstrated by its latest escalation in October 2023. Drawing on an original survey and in-depth interviews, we find that urban identity is associated with city-zens’ expectations that their city will safeguard human rights, particularly among the (Jewish) majority in mixed cities. We further divide urban identity into legal and social dimensions, elucidating its role in shaping local perspectives on human rights in ethno-nationally conflicted societies.

This mini-review examines scholars' responses to the question, "What constitutes a new party?" It proposes a path out of a situation in which there is no one standard answer to this question, or even a dominant answer. The absence of a standard or dominant answer creates an interesting setting for theoretical and methodological creativity. At the same time, the situation is problematic: with no agreed answer, large n studies that differ in how they define and operationalize party newness are not comparable. And because political parties are central actors in democratic politics, this situation negatively affects comparative politics research. An agreed answer (or answers) is especially critical for studies that analyze stability, continuity, and change of party organizations, party systems, and the political system as a whole. This article reviews the approaches to party newness and identifies their main features. No one approach seems to be substantially preferable to the others. Thus, the way forward is to establish a database that will include the data already produced on party newness. Such a database will enable comparison of the different codifications and measurements and systematically examine their similarities and differences.

There is a broad consensus that the ideological space of Western democracies consists of two distinct dimensions: one economic and the other cultural. In this Element, the authors explore how ordinary citizens make sense of these two dimensions. Analyzing novel survey data collected across ten Western democracies, they employ text analysis techniques to investigate responses to open-ended questions. They examine variations in how people interpret these two ideological dimensions along three levels of analysis: across countries, based on demographic features, and along the left-right divide. Their results suggest that there are multiple two-dimensional spaces: that is, different groups ascribe different meanings to what the economic and cultural political divides stand for. They also find that the two dimensions are closely intertwined in people's minds. Their findings make theoretical contributions to the study of electoral politics and political ideology.

Can major cities accommodate the growing political polarization surrounding immigration? Attitudes of city residents toward immigrants varies widely, influenced by factors like urban diversity, labor market dynamics, and cultural identity. While some embrace immigrants as enriching urban life, others view them as threats to culture and economic stability. Using data from three original surveys from Berlin, Barcelona, and Paris (N=1500), we explore how engagement in urban politics shapes these attitudes, considering national and non-national identities. Results indicate a correlation between political engagement and positive attitudes towards immigrants but also reveal how it can reinforce existing identity-based biases, potentially polarizing urban politics. Our comparative analysis highlights city-specific variations, with Berlin showing favorable attitudes alongside stronger polarization than Paris and Barcelona. These differences possibly stem from urban conditions, such as diversity, capital city status, and pro-immigrant policies. The findings emphasize the role of cities in addressing immigration challenges and fostering a-national affiliations.

Abstract This article maintains that states can utilize place naming in their capitals to advance two foreign policy goals: first, promoting closer relations with other international actors, including states and international organizations, thereby complementing more traditional diplomatic means; second, supporting national branding efforts as the state strives to enhance the image it seeks to project to other international actors and its global reputation. Drawing on the case of Israel's extensive place naming efforts in Jerusalem in the period 1948–1967, which were designed to achieve these two goals, the article establishes that the use of place naming as a diplomatic tool should be viewed as part of what is often referred to as cultural diplomacy, namely, international actors’ exchange of and collaboration regarding ideas, values, perceptions, and cultural gestures that serve to strengthen ties in the long term.

Studies have widely documented that women's descriptive representation in parliaments enhances their substantive representation. We probe this relationship under varying levels of women's collective and individual marginality based on an original dataset documenting the parliamentary behaviour of Israeli legislators over eleven parliamentary terms (1977–2015). Using several measures of individual-level marginality we show that marginalized female legislators are more prone to engage in gender-related parliamentary activity than their less marginal counterparts, albeit only under a certain threshold of women's marginality as a group. The article elucidates the dynamic nature of the relationship between descriptive and substantive representation of disadvantaged groups by demonstrating that it is contingent on their collective standing in parliament and on the marginality of individual legislators as manifested in their strategic choices.

This study examines the impact of spontaneous interactions between Jewish and Palestinian students in a divided city, focusing on how these interactions influence attitudes, feelings, and perceptions. Drawing on the contact hypothesis and third-place theory, which posit that interactions in neutral spaces can reduce prejudice, we contribute to ongoing debates surrounding these theories. Our research incorporates critical perspectives, acknowledging the potential for depoliticisation of space and conflict suppression in settler-colonial and divided cities. Using an online survey administered to 1,951 university students, we found that Jewish and Palestinian students who engage in spontaneous interactions with the other group during their studies exhibit more positive attitudes towards them. These findings highlight the importance of re-evaluating the concept of third places in divided cities, particularly in contexts marked by conflict and asymmetry. We conclude by offering practical recommendations based on our results.

This article examines whether and how an exogenous crisis affects citizens' attraction to government employment. Employing a panel survey with Israeli respondents, before and after Hamas' October 7 attack, we examine the change in their sector preferences and its association with trust in government, PSM, and partisanship. We find a moderate increase in respondents' preferences to work in government, alongside a larger increase in their preference to work in nonprofits. An increase in PSM underlies respondents' enhanced attraction to nonprofits. Additionally, the war amplifies the weight respondents assign to trust in government and PSM when choosing between government and nonprofits.

In information environments characterized by institutional distrust, fragmentation and the widespread dissemination of conspiracies and disinformation, citizens perceive misinformation as a salient and threatening issue. Especially amidst disruptive events and crises, news users are likely to believe that information is inaccurate or deceptive. Using an original 19-country comparative survey study across diverse regions in the world (N = 19,037), we find that news users are likely to regard information on the Russian war in Ukraine as false. They are more likely to attribute false information to deliberative deception than to a lack of access to the war area or inaccurate expert knowledge. Russian sources are substantially more likely to be blamed for falsehoods than Ukrainian or Western sources – but these attribution biases depend on a country's position on the war. Our findings reveal that people mostly believe that falsehoods are intended to deceive them, and selectively associate misinformation with the opposed camp.