1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910953487603321

Autore

Keren Michael

Titolo

Professionals against populism : the Peres government and democracy / / Michael Keren

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Albany, : State University of New York Press, c1995

ISBN

9781438408781

1438408781

9780585045979

0585045976

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (vii, 147 pages) : illustrations

Collana

SUNY series in Israeli studies

Disciplina

956.9405/4/092

Soggetti

Populism - Israel

Democracy - Israel

Technology and state - Israel

Israel Politics and government 1967-1993

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 133-141) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION -- Chapter 2 KNOWLEDGE AND DEMOCRACY -- Chapter 3 LAW AND SECURITY -- Chapter 4 IN QUEST OF MODERATION -- Chapter 5 THE SOCIAL CONTRACT -- Chapter 6 CONCLUSION -- Appendices -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX

Sommario/riassunto

This book, based on Shimon Peres's private papers, tells the unusual story of the Peres government of 1984-1986 in Israel. It is the story of an unpopular politician, demonized by his political enemies, who operates under great time restraints to manage a pluralistic democracy losing ground to enchanted masses in public squares. Lacking support from his own national unity government, Peres reverted to his old-time alliance with Israel's technocrats in his combat against populism. Michael Keren analyzes the role of legal professionals, strategic experts, and economists in the three main events of the Peres era: the scandal over the killing of two Arab terrorists by the General Security Service; the efforts to renew the peace process in the Middle East after the Lebanon war; and the economic stabilization program of 1985. The



analysis illumines Israel's hitherto unexplored technocratic stratum and its ongoing struggle over Israel's nature as an advanced industrial state. This stratum, the author contends, has,been the moving force behind the construction of the nuclear reactor in Dimona in the 1960s, the combat against populism in the 1980s, and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process of today.