Gila Menahem

Policy Paradigms, Policy Networks and Water Policy in Israel

The article deals with the questions of the emergence, persistence and change of policy paradigms. It focuses on the role that policy networks play in this process and draws on the literature of problem definition to explain this role. The paper investigates water policy in Israel in the years 1948-1997. The paper distinguishes among two water policy paradigms that have prevailed: the earlier paradigm was one of expanding water resources and agricultural production, followed by a paradigm of priority of agricultural expansion over water conservation. The paper also distinguishes among periods of anticipatory and reactive water policy and highlights the role of policy networks in formulating public policies. Recent years have witnessed deep public policy changes in many countries. The changes have often been so far-reaching that scholars find it useful to refer to them in terms of shifts in policy paradigms (Hall 1993). The retrenchment of the welfare state, the decrease of government intervention in economic markets and the rise of the New Public Management in public administration, are much-discussed paradigm changes (Pierson 1996; Coleman et al. 1997; Coleman and Perl 1997). Policy paradigms refer to the system of ideas and standards that specify the goals of policy, the kind of instruments that can be used to attain them, and the very nature of problems they are meant to address (Hall 1993: 279). The widening use of the concept of policy paradigm for understanding policy processes has significant implications for research agendas. It focuses attention on the ideas, arguments and belief sys* The author wishes to thank Prof. Ofira Seliktar for the use of interviews conducted by her in the framework of research for the data base of Associates for Middle East Research (AMER). The author also wishes to thank the anonymous readers of theJournal of Public Policy and William Coleman for their thoughtful comments, and Nancy Kupfer for her assistance. The research was supported by the Pinhas Sapir Center Tel-Aviv University. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.72 on Fri, 22 Jul 2016 05:53:10 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

Decredentialization and Recredentialization: The Role of Governmental Intervention in Enhancing Occupational Status of Russian Immigrants in Israel in the 1990s

This article addresses the question of the impact of governmental retraining programs on immigrants’ occupational incorporation. It proposes that immigrants’ loss of occupational status relates to decredentialization resulting from their foreign credentials’ being devalued and proposes viewing participation in governmental retraining programs as a process of recredentialization. The findings indicate the important role government can play in enhancing the occupational status of immigrants through recredentialization. Nine hundred ten immigrants from the former Soviet Union to Israel in the 1990s were interviewed in 1992 and again in 1995 to examine the effect of their participation in retraining programs on occupational integration and improving earnings. The effects were studied for salaried immigrants. The findings are discussed in light of the institutional perspective and the theories of human capital, screening theory, and credentialism.

Does government matter

Purpose – Aims to examine the effect of government intervention programs in improving the occupational opportunities of new immigrants as self‐employed entrepreneurs or salaried employees, and to determine the effect, if any, of gender and ethnicity.Design/methodology/approach – To examine the effects of two major types of government programs – retraining courses and support for business creation – a sample of 1,195 immigrants from the former Soviet Union in Israel were interviewed in depth on two different occasions.Findings – The findings indicate that the impact of both government programs was more pronounced for women immigrants and immigrants from the Asian republics.Research limitations/implications – The study focuses only on two government programs in one country – Israel.Practical implications – In terms of immigrant incorporation into a society, government programs matter and matter more for disadvantaged groups. Participation in these programs helps diminish any gaps created by market forces.Or...

Effects of the Design of Environmental Disclosure Regulation on Information Provision: The Case of Israeli Securities Regulation

Focusing on the potential of information regulations, this article aims to contribute to ongoing efforts of policymakers to improve policy tools, in light of the increasing complexity of assessing the environmental impacts of new technologies and industrial corporations. Using the annual reports of corporations and performance data from the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the study analyzed the quality of responses to the amendments of Israels Securities Regulations by major, publicly traded, polluting industrial corporations in Israel. The main theoretical claim of this paper is that within mandatory regulations there may be a large variability in the degree of specification of requirements. When considerable discretion is left to corporations, the result is a mixed mandatory-voluntary regulation regime. Our findings suggest that such variability impacts the implementation outcomes, as responses to environmental requirements depend on the level of discretion. Facilities increased their reported information, including the negative aspects, when specific mandatory prescriptions were stipulated. However, voluntary motivations did not result in the provision of information when corporations were allowed a high level of discretion. The authors recommend the delineation of exact stipulations of prescriptive requirements for the provision of comparative environmental information in order to obtain the environmental information deemed necessary.

Bonding and Bridging Associational Social Capital and the Financial Performance of Local Authorities in Israel

Abstract This study explores whether bridging and bonding social capital differ in their impacts on government performance at the local level and the extent to which these impacts vary between localities exhibiting differing socioeconomic resources. The study is based on an analysis of 256 local authorities in Israel. The findings show that bridging and bonding social capital do differ in their respective effects on government performance and that the nature of the relationship of each type of capital with government performance varies by the communitys socioeconomic profile. Poor communities with high densities of bridging social capital were characterized by lower deficits as a percentage of total municipal budgets, more accurate expenditure forecasts and greater spending on services per capita.

The Impact of Community Bonding and Bridging Social Capital on Educational Performance in Israel

The study examines two issues of the relationship between social capital and educational performance: the different effects of bridging and bonding social capital on urban educational performance and the contextual effects of social capital. The main argument states that bonding and bridging social capital are differently related to educational performance as well as poor versus rich communities. Based on a study of 204 Israeli municipalities the results confirm that bridging social capital is related to positive matriculation rates, and this is more pronounced in communities ranked low as opposed to high on a socioeconomic status scale.

Immigrants in a Restructuring Economy: A Partial Test of Theories

The article addresses the occupational integration of immigrants from the former USSR into the economy of the city of Tel Aviv. This process is examined from a structural perspective, which focuses on the location of immigrants as a group in the restructuring economy of Israel’s main business centre. Data from labour force surveys and income surveys conducted in 1992 and 1994 by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics are used to analyse the distribution of veteran Israelis and recent immigrants among economic sectors and occupations. Despite their superior academic and professional qualifications, immigrants were underrepresented in the business and financial services sector, the leading sector in post-industrial economies. They were most strongly represented in the personal services sector, where they replaced Palestinian workers. The findings lend support to both the restructuring and replacement hypotheses.

Israel’s Water Policy 1980s–2000s: Advocacy Coalitions, Policy Stalemate, and Policy Change

The question of what explains policy changes has been of much scholarly and practical interest. Of no less interest is the question of what explains long periods of policy stalemate, especially in situations where the risks generated by prolonged inaction due to policy impasses are obvious. This chapter attempts to explain the stalemate in Israel’s water policy during the two decades between 1980 and 2000, a stalemate that persisted despite consensus on the gravity of the status quo, the inadequacy of existing policies and the risks of the continuing impasse. The chapter also tries to identify the factors that account for policy changes in the 2000s. We analyze both policy impasse and policy change using the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) theoretical frameworks developed by Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith (Policy change and learning: an advocacy coalition approach. Westview Press, Boulder, 1993).

Parental Choice and Residential Segregation.

Can enhanced parental choice of schools have a moderating effect on processes of residential segregation? In this article, the declared motivation and residential distribution of parents who enrolled their children in Special Program Non-neighborhood (SPNN) schools in the metropolitan area of Tel-Aviv, Israel, are examined. Our findings lend some support to the hypothesis that enrollment in SPNN schools may serve as an alternative for residential mobility for families whose educational and professional status is high, relative to the status of their areas of residence.

Socioeconomic achievements of holocaust survivors in israel: the first and second genderation

This study examines the socioeconomic achievements of first and second generation Holocaust survivors who emigrated from Europe to Israel following World War II. The achievements of the two groups, as indicated by years of schooling, occupational status and salary levels, were assessed in comparison to former immigrants of the same age cohorts and ethnic origin.The findings reveal that approximately 30 years after their arrival, the Holocaust survivors were still lagging behind the earlier immigrants, due mainly to differences in return on human capital characteristics. However, the results were reversed in the second generation, with the survivors’ children performing relatively better then their Israeli- born counterparts. These findings are discussed in terms of the contrasting influences of the Holocaust and its aftermath on the economic orientations of the two generations of survivors. On a more general level this study calls attention to the concept of generation experience as a critical variable in immigration theory and research.