The Welfare State in Israel: The Evolution of Social Security Policy and Practice.

Abstract

Though a latecomer to the ranks of social democratic welfare states, Israel developed a modern system of social security in the span of three decades. The authors examine the key policy issues common to all social security systems, while analyzing the distinctive Israeli process of policymaking in each case. They look specifically, for example, at the role played in the development of social security policy by ideology, politics, public opinion, demography, and ethnicity; the conditions under which various forms of social protection reduce inequality; and the effects of different types of institutional structures on the development of social policy.