The Jewish State: A Century Later

by Alan Dowty

Book Overview

As the fiftieth anniversary of Israeli statehood approaches, along with the commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of the World Zionist Organization, the question of what is meant by a "Jewish" state is particularly timely. Alan Dowty takes on that question in a book that is admirable for its clarity and its comprehensive interpretation of the historical roots and contemporary functioning of Israel.

Israeli nationhood, democracy, and politics...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520229118
• ISBN13: 9780520229112
• Release Date: June 2001
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 371 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The Nuts and Bolts of a Democracy

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.