Fuzzy Control

Abstract

What happens when rules are inadequate but rule modification is impossible or undesirable? This article poses this question in the context of intergovernmental relations in Israel. For more than twenty years most local authorities consistently have engaged in deficity financing, defying budgetary laws and formal rules of conduct. At the same time, overall deficit conspicuously has remained within the confines of what might be considered tolerable size. The system seems to have found a way to cope with laws, rules, and procedures that can be neither strictly enforced nor completely ignored: I call this mode fuzzy control. In this article I explore the notion of fuzzy control and examine how it works in the context of intergovernmental relations in Israel as well as how it might aid in an understanding of Israel's administrative culture.