Making ‘the people’ behave: the economic policies of the Israeli anti-populist ‘change’ coalition

ABSTRACT

Populism’s recent ascent to power in many countries has fueled the discussion of anti-populist responses. This paper investigates anti-populism’s implications for economic policy and policymaking. Anti-populism has been shown to manifest alongside and through both neoliberalism and technocracy; this paper investigates how anti-populism shapes the manifestation of neoliberalism and technocracy, and how they can be in turn employed to strengthen anti-populist logic. I consider the case of Israel’s anti-populist coalition (2021–2022), which replaced the populist former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. After reviewing the existing literature on anti-populism, I discuss behaviour modification taxation’s role in and importance for anti-populist policy agendas. I analyse the discourse surrounding the implementation of behaviour modification taxation and its implications in Israel, showing that anti-populists can use such policies to not only hurt populist voters but also replace ‘the people’ in the political imagination with rational, incentive-driven individuals.

KEYWORDS:

• Anti-populism
• discourse
• behaviour modification
• Israel
• populism

Disclosure statement

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

Ethics statement

Ethical approval was obtained from the ethics committee at University of Haifa, approval number 327/21

Notes

1 Tweet from official account, 11/22/2022 https://twitter.com/tamarzandberg/status/1594954196331159552.

2 Ethical approval was obtained from the ethics committee at University of Haifa, approval number 327/21.

3 Just under the hourly minimum wage rate.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Asaf Yakir

Asaf Yakir is a PhD candidate for political science, at the University of Haifa, Israel, He holds a B.A in Jewish History and an M.A in political science, both from the University of Haifa. His PhD project deals with the political economy of right-wing populist governments, and the anti-populist reactions they generate.