This study attempts to evaluate the degree of independence and entrepreneurship among a group of Arab Muslim women, rural and Bedouin, and their own viewpoints on issues relating to independence, entrepreneurship, economic involvement and their social and legal status against a background of a changing global economy.

The municipal water system reform in Israel has long passed the point of no return, both from the perspective of the volume of population and its single-directional legal approach. However, this outcome hardly heralds the reform's conclusion. Completing the municipal corporatization is only one aspect of the reform and does not secure its success by standards of its own initial principles and goals. Analyzing the policy process of corporatization on a national level uncovers fundamental phenomena which may impede, without possibility of redress, the reform's stated goals, the public interest and the interests of consumers. In the face of this disturbing possibility this research attempts to reevaluate the corporatization reform and its possible impacts.

This study examines the deliberations of the Nissim Commission as a window to understanding the trends and the development processes over a given period – 1995-2001. The study focuses on the development processes, their leading protagonists, the central motives guiding them and the development mechanism of agricultural land and open spaces in Israel. The analysis relates to the process itself and not to its outcome and proposes, among others, the prospects of forecasting the development process and expected trends.

This study examines the role of the judiciary in the process of change which has taken place during the last three decades in the legal foundation and function of rural local government in Israel.

This study compares between two regional leaders of the peripheral town of Yeruham over three decades. Its findings show that leaders who operated under similar economic, geographical and cultural conditions, embodied very diverse types of leadership. The comparison manifested various perspectives and channels of influence: the community vision, the socio-political concept, funding strategies and most particularly the style and modus operandi with both the local population and the national concentrations of power. Factors associated with the character and image of the leader impacted directly on local development and on the quality of services as well as on shifts in the political culture of Yeruham's residents.

This study examines the policy concept of addressing poor-performing municipalities in Israel as reflected by the new Municipalities Bill-2007, and compares legislation and experience in this field in other countries, most particularly in Britain. The central dilemma which the study addresses is the paucity of the Municipalities Bill and its questionable ability to accelerate recovery processes in local government under crisis. The Bill reflects the governing perception in the country on addressing poor-performing localities, which is rigid, limited and based on an economic paradigm. This, despite the experience of other western countries, which includes policy, legislation and wide accommodating measures to challenge the under-performance of public organizations.

This study examines the attempt to create a joint management public-private body for the center of Jerusalem, against a background of an ambitious project to regenerate its old center. The study points to the difficulties entailed in the process at the outset, and proposes the means to resolve them based on worldwide experience and recommends an appropriate model for the center of  Jerusalem.