Developments in Israeli Public Administration (Israeli History, Politics, and Society, 18)

Annotation The "Israeli History, Politics and Society" series comprises multidisciplinary studies that range from elections and the Yom Kippur war to the search for a true Israeli identity and the various initiatives to foment or prevent the peace process. This volume brings together a set of articles that try to estimate the direction of developments in Israeli public administration: whether ministries will remain under the ambit of the Weberian model, follow the New Public Management model, or move towards a mix of the two. Each essay focuses on a specific factor which may inhibit reforms, such as the weakness of mechanisms for policy control, monitoring and evaluation; lack of co-ordination between the different ministries; lack of effective accountability mechanisms; an administrative culture that is characterized by frequent infringements of moral integrity; a high level of politicization; and a Supreme Court which plays a paramount role by routinely intervening in the practices of public administration as well as in the business of other governmental and non-governmental institutions. Each article probes how these distinctive features of Israeli public administration reflect underlying traits of the nation's history, culture and geography, and gauges the extent to which formal structures provide an indication of how policy-making and programme implementation really operate The Development Of The Israeli Government Offices / Aharon Kfir -- Administrative Power In Israel / Eva Etzioni-halevy -- The Functioning Of Whatever Is The Israeli State / Ira Sharkansky -- Controlling Government : Budgeting, Evaluation And Auditing In Israel / Robert Schwartz -- Judicial Accountability In Israel : The High Court Of Justice And The Phenomenon Of Judicial Hyperactivism / Yoav Dotan -- Choosing A Regulatory Regime : The Experience Of The Israeli Electricity Market / Moshe Maor -- The Role Of State And Public Audit In Safeguarding Ethics In The Public Service : Whose Ethics? What Ethics? / Asher Friedberg. Edited By Moshe Maor ; Foreword By Yehezkel Dror. This Group Of Studies First Appeared As 'developments In Israeli Public Administration', A Special Issue Of Israel Affairs, Vol. 8, No. 4 (summer, 2002)--t.p. Verso. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Israeli political scientists explore some main aspects of public administration in the country in hopes of providing novel insights and comparative material for studying public administration as an academic discipline and an applied profession. More specifically, they look at how the original centralized control has changed to address its weaknesses. The eight articles were originally published as a special edition of Israeli Affairs vol. 8 no. 4 (Summer 2002). Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR