Religious Zionism as a Dealigned partisan sub-system – Israel’s 2019–21 elections

ABSTRACT

During the second decade of the twenty-first century, Israel’s Religious Zionist camp has undergone a process of accelerated Dealignment of its partisan system, resulting in the transformation of the political parties comprising it into a Dealigned Partisan Subsystem. An example of this process can be found in the transformations that took place in the ‘Jewish Home’ Religious-Zionist political party led by Naftali Bennett. Within 9 years and seven election campaigns, the party succeeded in trying out the Open Camp Party model, experiencing a division led by Bennett himself, and finally reaching the verge of disappearing and once again initiating renewed revival attempts. The Dealignment of partisan systems includes a high level of voters’ mobility; a decline in the support of existing mainstream parties; a decline in voting rates; and a decline in the strength of partisan identification, while voting patterns become more personal. The partisan system itself changes during this stage, with old parties disappearing and others rising in their place, often only to disappear from the political map as quickly as they appeared. This article illustrates the extent to which the Religious-Zionist partisan subsystem in Israeli politics during the second decade of the twenty-first century until the 2022 elections campaign corresponds with most characteristics of a Dealigned system.

KEYWORDS:

• Dealignment
• political system
• partisan sub-system
• Religious Zionism
• Israel
• elections
• voting patterns

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Carreras et al., “Refining the Theory of Partisan Alignments,” 671–85.

2. Dalton, Beck, and Flanagan, “Electoral Change”; and Pomper, “Classification of Presidential Elections,” 535–66.

3. Lipset and Rokkan, “Cleavage Structures.”

4. Pedersen, “Dynamics of European Party Systems,” 1–26.

5. Shamir et al., “Kadima as a Dealigned Partisan System,” 25–61.

6. Ibid.

7. For more on the underlying causes for the Dealignment of the partisan system, see: Burnham, Critical Elections; Carmines and Stimson, “On the Structure,” and Race and the Transformation of American Politics; Carotty, “Party Transformations”; Carreras et al., “Refining the Theory of Partisan Alignments”; Dalton and Wattenberg, Parties without Partisans; Egoz, “Intergenerational Similarities”; Inglehart, Modernization and Postmodernization; Ignazi, “The Crisis of Parties”; Keing et al., More for Less; Key, “A Theory of Critical Election,” and “Secular Realignment”; Laver and Hunt, Policy and Party Competition; Müller-Rommel and Poguntke, Green Parties in National Government; and Shamir et al., “Kadima as a Dealigned Partisan System”; Sundquist, Dynamics of the Party System.

8. Shamir et al., “Kadima as a Dealigned Partisan System”.

9. Lachlau, “On Populist Reason.”

10. Diskin, “Current Political Map.”

11. Lavi et al., “King Bibi.”

12. Don Yihya, “Stability and Transitions in a Camp Party,” 25–52.

13. Friedman, “Trauma of ‘Erosion,” 9–14.

14. Ibid.

15. Ettinger, “Unravelled,” 249.

16. Cohen, “Start of Something New,” 81–102.

17. Cohen and Lazar, “Ruling Party vs. a Party Aiming for Leadership,” 25–61.

18. Baruch, “Drama in the Nationalist Camp.”

19. Cohen, “Start of Something New,” 81–102; and Cohen and Lazar, “Ruling Party vs. a Party Aiming for Leadership.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Menachem Lazar

Menachem Lazar is a political psychologist and a PhD candidate at the Department of Political Studies, Bar-Ilan University.

Asher Cohen

Asher Cohen is Associate Professor of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University and former head of its School of Communications.