Israel - Populism, Polarization and the Crisis of Democracy

Immediately after the swearing-in of Netanyahu’s sixth government at the end of 2022, Justice Minister Yariv Levin presented a comprehensive plan to reshape the foundations of the regime in Israel. How can the concern about his plan and the strong reactions it provoked in the Israeli public be explained? To what extent is this a political struggle unique to Israel? And what are the common characteristics between it and the threats to democracy in other countries?<br><br> In this essay, Prof. Yaniv Roznai and&nbsp;Prof. Noam Gidron&nbsp;combine legal and political perspectives to examine Israel’s democratic backsliding and to&nbsp;explain the challenges facing Israeli democracy. The essay points to the strengthening of populism and polarization as two trends that together undermine the democratic order in Israel. The authors examine the deep-seated processes and the weakness of the institutional structures that brought us to the constitutional crisis of 2023-2026.