The Jewish State: A Century Later

Dowty's The Jewish State: A Century Later, examines the state of Israeli democracy over the course of its development, but overwhelmingly in its more modern aspects, which in this case is the late 1990s. Dowty has some interesting things to say about the development of democratic institutions in Israel. For a people who mostly hailed from authoritarian regimes in Eastern Europe, democratic options seemed unlikely for the early Zionists. But Dowty convincingly traces the development of democratic, consensus politics in European Jewish communities to the kind of representational, parliamentarian democracy that developed in Israel. The roots of Israel democracy existed in the religious context of the traditional Jewish enclave, and found free expression in Zionist institutions and settings. Dowty examines both the up and down sides of this system of consensus, and he tackles the thorny issues confronting Israeli democracy (rights for the Arab Israeli minority, the status of West Bank Arabs, the threat from theocratic, right wing religious Zionists) with honesty and complexity. All in all, this work provides a comprehensive and readable account of a unique society and in institutions. For anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of Israeli democracy, this book is crucial.