Freshly Printed - allow 7 days lead
Couldn't load pickup availability
David Ben-Gurion and the Foundation of Israeli Democracy
Nir Kedar (Author), Haim Watzman (Translated by)
9780253057464
Paperback / softback, published 7 December 2021
272 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.404 kg
David Ben-Gurion and the Foundation of Israeli Democracy is an outstanding work of scholarship. Deeply researched, clearly written, and persuasively argued, the book will make an important contribution to our understanding of the formation of Israeli democracy and the crucial role that Ben-Gurion played in this. The full complexity and richness of the general perspective and particular ideas presented in Kedar's monograph, of course, simply cannot be captured in a brief review such as this one, which is why individuals interested in Israeli democracy are very strongly encouraged to seek out his work. Though the book presents an essentially sympathetic account of the origins of Israeli democracy, not to mention an essentially sympathetic account of Ben-Gurion's role in embedding democratic values and institutions within Israeli society, the author does not shy away from presenting Israeli democracy's warts, too. Kedar's work, in short, constitutes a nicely balanced and extremely informative inquiry into its subject. [Kedar] makes an important contribution to our understanding of how Ben-Gurion's democratic vision shaped Israel, even if it fell short of some of its highest goals.
In David Ben-Gurion and the Foundation of Israeli Democracy, Nir Kedar offers a poignant study of the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Kedar provides an explication of the making of Israeli democracy in terms of its institutional-legal structures and social-cultural underpinnings. David Ben-Gurion and the Foundation of Israeli Democracy connects the formal structures of democracy to the fundamental principles that they were constructed to serve—human freedom and dignity.
Introduction
1. Ben-Gurion Versus a Constitution
2. Democracy and the Army
3. Establishing the Rule of Law
4. Creating the State Administration
5. Parliamentary Democracy and the Fight to Change the Electoral System
6. A Democratic Jewish State
7. A Sense of Peoplehood
8. Nationalism, Human Rights, and Security
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index