>> Read the executive summary of the report
In a comprehensive report written by Dr. Michal Evron Yaniv and Adv. Eitay Mack, along with Prof. Naomi Chazan, Dr. Gayil Talshir, and Prof. Adam Shinar as members of its steering committee, Zulat asserts that the regime in Israel has become competitive authoritarian. Three years after the formation of the Netanyahu-led 37th government, Israel has not yet become a full dictatorship where the opposition cannot exert any influence, but it can no longer be defined as a flawed or partial democracy of the familiar kind, since its authoritarian components have become too dominant and systematic. In other words, Israel has shifted from a flawed democracy to a flawed or partial authoritarian regime.
The report presents prominent examples of the 37th government’s actions and shows how the sum total of these measures created a critical mass that changed the nature of the regime. The conceptualization of the regime change is based on the theoretical model of competitive authoritarianism, developed by American scholar Prof. Steven Levitsky, one of the world’s most prominent political scientists, and his colleague Prof. Lucan Way.
These hybrid civilian regimes retain democratic institutions, which although perceived as an arena for political contestation are systematically abused by their governments to acquire a significant advantage over their rivals. Thus, competition still exists but it is on the decline and considered unfair by accepted standards.
The report maps out the actions of Netanyahu’s government that have infringed on democracy in several core areas:
- Ability to hold fair elections undermined: Weakening of judiciary and gatekeepers, delegitimization of political participation of Arab citizens and the opposition, incitement and disinformation.
- Abuse of access to resources: Use of public funds and corruption as a means of ensuring rule, subordination of legal counsels in government ministries to the political echelon, politicization of the civil service.
- Takeover of the judiciary and law-enforcement authorities: Weakening and politicization of the justice system, persecution and enfeeblement of the Attorney General, subordination of the police to the political echelon, appointment of a Shin Bet chief politically loyal to the prime minister, promotion of policy of unaccountability and infringement of rule of law.
- Assault on free media: Delegitimization of the media, takeover of public broadcasting, use of economic and regulatory tools, legal harassment, closure of foreign media.
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Many Israeli citizens feel that their country has changed its face, but struggle to define its new one. An accurate definition of the regime is essential for conducting an effective public debate about the actions required to confront it.
The report contends that the situation is still reversible and that Israel has not yet become a full dictatorship. Waiting for Netanyahu’s government to cross yet another “red line” or artificially ranking the dangers posed by its anti-democratic actions is pointless, given that the main strategy of a competitive authoritarian regime, as described in the document, is to inundate the system with multiple measures targeting democratic institutions, subjecting them to relentless attack and attrition in order to facilitate their hijacking and abuse.
The struggle against a competitive authoritarian regime calls for challenging every infringement by the government – be it legislative, administrative, or rhetorical – with legal, parliamentary, and civic tools as long as the institutions able to stop them still exist. Therefore, every possible arena – the Knesset, legal review by the Supreme Court, regulators, demonstrations, protests, and the press – must be exhausted to this end.
