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Israeli Political System
with Professor Yaacov Yadgar
This online course was developed by Yaacov Yadgar while serving as the Schusterman Visiting Scholar in Israel Studies at the Bildner Center. The course offers an introductory overview of the Israeli political system. Focused mostly on the institutional and structural traits of this political system, the course also includes a preliminary analysis of historical and social issues.
The course is aimed at providing its audience with the basic knowledge and understanding of the Israeli political system, as well as highlighting some of the major dilemmas with which it has had to cope.
Among the main issues discussed in this course: Israel's identity as a democratic and Jewish state and the dilemmas arising from this self-definition of the state; the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the Israeli government; the Israeli electoral system; and local government in Israel. We conclude with a review of the main cleavages in Israeli society and their interaction with the Israeli political system.
Yaacov Yadgar served as the Schusterman Visiting Scholar in Israel Studies at the Bildner Center during 2007-2008. He is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University. He received his Ph.D. from Bar-Ilan University and has served as a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University (2001) and a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Hebrew University (2004).
Professor Yadgar has received several grants and awards, including the Menachem Begin Heritage Center's award for outstanding Ph.D. dissertation. His topic was "Intellectuals and Tradition: The Attitudes of Leading Israeli Columnists towards the Israeli National Narrative, 1967-1997." He also received the Israel Foundations Trustees research grant for the research proposal "Masortim (Traditionalists) in Israel: Modernity without Secularization?," Israeli Parliament award for outstanding students, the Rector's award for outstanding students from Bar-Ilan University, and a grant for doctoral students from the Rabin Center for Israel Studies.
His publications include, Our Story: The National Narratives in the Israeli Press (Haifa University Press, 2004, in Hebrew), and numerous articles on nationalism and ethnicity; culture and collective identity; Jewish identity in Israel; and media and politics.
All materials produced herein by the faculty member (in particular, but not limited to, the script) are copyrighted, according to the policies set forth by Rutgers University.
© Yaacov Yadgar
