Ոչ լիբերալից դեպի լիբերալ. գաղափարախոսական շրջադարձի արդյունքները Իսրայելի օրինակով/From Illiberal To Liberal: The Outcome of the Ideological U-Turn on the Case of Israel

Abstract

The phenomena behind the economic development of Israel from Yishuv times to socialism and from socialism to liberalism may illustrate the outcome of ideological Uturn and therefore merits more academic attention and discussion. This paper seeks to examine the outcome drastically shifting the governmental policies: from illiberal laborism and socialism towards more market-friendly atmosphere on the case o f Israel. For that purpose, the following research question was formulated: “Under what circumstances did the government o f Israel change the philosophy underlying its economic policy-making?”. The methodology applied is purely qualitative. In particular, taking into account that the case is truly unique and the results are not transferrable a qualitative “intrinsic case study” was applied. We arrived at a conclusion that the relative economic success of Yishuv and later Israel that took place before 1985 is difficult to ascribe to the leftist policies. On the other hand, the diminishing involvement o f the government in economic affairs and the introduction of the pivotal principles o f market economy laid the foundation o f modern and developed state which, despite its small size and uneasy political relations with its neighbors is among the global leaders in a number o f fields, including the high-tech industry.