Abstract:

This book attempts to develop a new conceptual view of local government in Israel and possible paths of institutional development towards the next decade. The urgency of such a task is based on two key assumptions. First, and mostly, the emergence of a new public agenda that shifts the traditional dominance in Israel of security related issues towards social and civic concerns. Second, the exhaustion of present patterns of governing and public governance and the consequent need for institutional change.

The book describes the key features of a new type of local government in Israel  (the ‘4th generation’) and explores three different scenarios for its actual emergence.