TY - BOOK ED - Friedman, Elie ED - Neubauer-Shani, Michal ED - Scham, Paul PY - 2024 DA - 2024// TI - Polarization and consensus-building in Israel: the center cannot hold T3 - Routledge studies in Middle Eastern politics 121 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - London KW - Polarization (Social sciences) KW - Israel KW - Consensus (Social sciences) KW - Politics and government KW - POLITICAL SCIENCE / General KW - POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Democracy AB - "This edited volume examines the most pressing social and political issues confronting Israel from a multi-disciplinary perspective, focusing on the breakdown of social solidarity and the inability to formulate consensus. The contributors - encompassing political scientists, historians, communication researchers, sociologists, economists, and educators - focus on specific topics that serve as exemplary cases of various trends of consensus and polarization. These trends are examined in the context of ideological, religious, economic, national, and ethnic cleavages. In addition, this volume analyses how political actors' preference for "non-decision" on various issues has resulted in the maintenance of a status quo, with cleavages or conflicts being neither mitigated nor polarized. Together, this collection of articles paints a picture of Israel as a state racked by increasing polarization along ideological and religious lines; this difficulty in determining a consensual definition of the state, it is argued, threatens to destroy social solidarity in Israel altogether, a climate in which "the center cannot hold". The book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the major internal threats to Israel's self-definition as a Jewish-democratic state and will also appeal to sociologists and political scientists interested in global polarization trends"-- SN - 9781000874679 UR - https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=3634839 LA - English N1 - edited by Elie Friedman, Michal Neubauer-Shani, Paul Scham ID - 1858873754 ER -