The liberal democratic nation-state is on the decline in the West as a result of globalisation, regionalisation, universalisation of minority rights, multiculturalism and the rise of ethno-nationalism. While Western countries are decoupling the nation-state and shifting toward multicultural civic democracy, other countries are consolidating an alternative non-civic form of a democratic state that is identified with and subservient to a single ethnic nation. This model,`ethnic democracy', is presented; its defining features, the circumstances leading to it and the conditions for its stability are elaborated upon; and it is applied to Israel. Contrary to its self-image and international reputation as a Western liberal democracy, Israel is an ethnic democracy in which the Jews appropriate the state and make it a tool for advancing their national security, demography, public space, culture and interests. At the same time, Israel is a democracy that extends various kinds of rights to 1 million Palestinian Arab citizens (16 per cent of the population) who are perceived as a threat. The criticisms against the general model and its applicability to Israel are discussed. The model has already been applied to other countries, but more applications are needed in order to develop it further.There are, in the West, two main forms of democracy for managing con¯icts in ethnically or nationally divided societies. The classical and predominant form is liberal democracy, prevalent in countries such as France and the United States. 1 The state treats all its citizens equally and makes them members of a common civic nation. The nation-state maintains and fosters a single language, culture, identity and public school system that homogenise, integrate and assimilate the population. Ethnicity is privatised. Ethnic cultures and identities are allowed but neither recognised nor encouraged by * I wish to thank three anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and detailed comments on this article. An initial version of this article was presented in the conference on`Multiculturalism and Democracy in Divided Societies' that was held at the Center for Multiculturalism and

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