Over the last sixty years the government of Israel has earmarked many resources for what it defined as "developing the Negev", projected to reduce the disparities between the center of Israel and its periphery.  It appears that this goal was never achieved and disparities have widened rather than diminished. This failure requires a renewed examination of the rationale behind current policy plans.

The Ministry of Health in Israel, as the sole body responsible for the equitable and efficient distribution of health services, is also the sole regulator over the health systems and the allocation of funds to them. This study examines whether the aspiration for equitable health services does indeed materialize. Using spatial analytical tools a comparison was made between the distribution of mammography and tomography (CT) institutions in various scenarios and the current existing distribution.

Its findings indicate that there is a disparity between the health policy and regulations and the current situation. These findings reinforce the need for and significance of clarifying the policy, and strengthening the ties between the various operating systems.

This volume of papers addresses national, district and metropolitan planning perspectives. Among them are the new generation of national and district planning issues and a return to comprehensive national planning. Some focus on a vision for long-term planning, Tel Aviv's empowerment and internalizing concepts of sustainable development as well as on combining between institutionalized operations and public and academic discourse. Others address dilemmas of metropolitan regeneration, strategies to strengthen Jerusalem and the late Professor Arie Shachar's unique contribution to urban geography, planning and mapping.

This publication focuses on the transformation in municipal planning arena in the last three decades, led by the growth in the number of players taking part in the process and the plethora of activities, interests and values. These changes, in a complex arena such as the city of Jerusalem, impact on the planning process and its output: the protraction of the process and an increasing disparity between planning and its implementation.

This study attempts to characterize the impact of scientists on shaping environmental policy in Israel and when, and in what way does the use of scientific rationale lead to maximizing the successful promotion of a desired policy? This is a particularly significant question in Israel, where the issue has not as yet gained wide public acknowledgement.

Urban creativity is currently the focus of theoretical and practical research and can contribute to the understanding of local government modus operandi and in particular to its effective management. The study focuses on Shoham and Holon, both defined by the Ministry of the Interior as successful municipalities. It examines the creativity of the municipality distinguishing between effective management, which emphasizes internal processes within the municipality, and democratic openness, which emphasizes the interaction between the municipality and the environment as well as increasing local capital resources.

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.