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A theoretical framework for the analysis of the Israeli Palestinian peace process
... These processes are typical of the third wave of democratization in Latin America and Eastern Europe (Linz and Stepan, 1996;O'Donnell and Schmitter, 1986;Przeworski, 1991). I include Israel/Palestine in this analytical framework given the two groups' territorial contiguity, as opposed to the colonial case (Grinberg, 1994), which tends to provoke violent struggles of liberation. ...
... This dynamic of four competing political elites also took place in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations (Grinberg, 1994(Grinberg, , 2010. In this article, I focus on the question of violent repression, the political role of the Israeli military and the Palestinian strategies of resistance employed against the dual regime of military/democratic domination. ...
This article analyzes violence within the framework of power relations and social conflict, aiming to comprehend the different dynamics that lead to escalation of violence or its containment by opening political space for representation. It distinguishes between the violence of dominant and non-dominant groups and explores the conditions of effective resistance that facilitate recognition and negotiation. The Israeli–Palestinian case provides an opportunity to explore the dynamics of resistance and violence and their relation to politics. The goal is to explain the contradictory reactions to the First and Second Intifada in order to analyze options for the future. The article argues that the First Intifada opened up political space for recognition and negotiations but since the Second Intifada there has been only violence, no politics. The First Intifada demarcated the borders of the Israeli state and the imagined Palestinian state, while the second blurred them. Palestinian resistance is in a catch: when it uses violence it is oppressed, and when it uses diplomatic negotiations it is ignored. Given the absence of recognized borders and the imbalance of power between Israelis and Palestinians, international intervention is required both in the form of pressure on Israel and in the form of peace troops.
This paper proposes a conceptual distinction of political organizations from state and society, providing an enhanced theoretical framework in the analysis of state autonomy. This theoretical argument is based on an analysis of Israel's transition to statehood, and the development of the relations between the Israeli Labor Institutional Complex (LIC) and the state. Jewish labor organizations were established amidst the historical conditions of a weak (colonial) state and a split labor market, which served to enhance the strength of the LIC vis-a-vis the state and workers. The large political and economic changes that followed statehood and industrialization failed to change the LIC's organizational features. The institutionalization of the occupation and the state's weakness after 1967 can be explained by the compatibility of the new structural characteristics to the institutional needs of the LIC.
The theme is the struggle for Palestinian national liberation from `colonial' rule, of which the uprising since December 1987 is seen as the latest and most powerful phase. Most of the contributors are professionals in the occupied territories (in sociology, economics, political science, public health, etc.), and they write as scholars and firsthand observers as well as supporters of the intifada. There is much interesting material on the respective roles of villagers, urban workers, the merchant class and Palestinian women, as well as on the competing secular and Islamic wings of the nationalist movement.Foreign Affairs
An unusually well-informed collection of 19 essays on the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, which has been underway since December 1987. The contributors know their subject and in composite they provide a clear, pithy (and sympathetic) picture of the economic, political, and social underpinnings of the uprising. Although the perspective is generally inside looking outward, there are several good chapters on the international aspects of the intifada. . . . Highly recommended for academic libraries.Choice
This edited volume presents a historical background of the occupation and its nature and ramifications to Palestinian nationalism. Its coverage also embraces the catalysts for and the revolutionary transformation of the Palestinian uprising and it includes an interim assessment of the achievements and failures of the Intifada. By relying on first-hand original Arabic and Hebrew sources, the book provides a comprehensive survey and analysis of the Palestinian uprising. Intifada's perspective is unique in that many of its contributors have been actual participants in the uprising as well as its professional observers.
Part I presents the setting and conditions that gave rise to the uprising, with an analysis of the nature of the occupation, a presentation of the colonial economic policies imposed by the Israelis and the development of the Palestinian political consciousness, and an analysis of the infrastructure of the resistance. Part II looks at the participants of the uprising from several different perspectives: refugee camps, villages, the role of women, the working class, petite bourgeoisie, religion, revolution, and the PLO. Part III examines the Intifada's implications on the Arab world, the United States, and the European community. Part IV examines the impact on the protagonists, Israel and the Palestinians. The conclusion takes a look at prospects for the future. This book should appeal to students and scholars of Middle East/Israeli-Arab relations.
Until recently, dominant theoretical paradigms in the comparative social sciences did not highlight states as organizational structures or as potentially autonomous actors. Indeed, the term 'state' was rarely used. Current work, however, increasingly views the state as an agent which, although influenced by the society that surrounds it, also shapes social and political processes. The contributors to this volume, which includes some of the best recent interdisciplinary scholarship on states in relation to social structures, make use of theoretically engaged comparative and historical investigations to provide improved conceptualizations of states and how they operate. Each of the book's major parts presents a related set of analytical issues about modern states, which are explored in the context of a wide range of times and places, both contemporary and historical, and in developing and advanced-industrial nations. The first part examines state strategies in newly developing countries. The second part analyzes war making and state making in early modern Europe, and discusses states in relation to the post-World War II international economy. The third part pursues new insights into how states influence political cleavages and collective action. In the final chapter, the editors bring together the questions raised by the contributors and suggest tentative conclusions that emerge from an overview of all the articles. As a programmatic work that proposes new directions for the analysis of modern states, the volume will appeal to a wide range of teachers and students of political science, political economy, sociology, history, and anthropology.
The quest for freedom from hunger and repression has triggered in recent years a dramatic, worldwide reform of political and economic systems. Never have so many people enjoyed, or at least experimented with democratic institutions. However, many strategies for economic development in Eastern Europe and Latin America have failed with the result that entire economic systems on both continents are being transformed. This major book analyzes recent transitions to democracy and market-oriented economic reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Drawing in a quite distinctive way on models derived from political philosophy, economics, and game theory, Professor Przeworski also considers specific data on individual countries. Among the questions raised by the book are: What should we expect from these experiments in democracy and market economy? What new economic systems will emerge? Will these transitions result in new democracies or old dictatorships?
In order to analyze Brazil's recent accumulation of capital in the light of its continued dependence, Peter Evans focuses on the relationships among multinational corporations, local private entrepreneurs, and state-owned enterprises that have developed in Brazil over the last decade. He argues that while relations among the three kinds of capital continue to be contradictory, a triple alliance has been formed that provides the social structural basis for the pattern of local industrialization that has emerged. The author begins with a review of the theories of imperialism and dependency in the third world. Placing the Brazilian experience of the last twenty years in its historical context, he traces the country's evolution from the period of "classic dependence" at the turn of the century to the current stage of "dependent development." In conclusion, Professor Evans discusses the implications of the Brazilian model for other third world countries. Examining the nature of the triple alliance as it is manifested in such industries as pharmaceuticals, textiles, and petrochemicals, the author reveals the complex differentiation of the groups' roles in industrialization and lays bare the grounds for their collaboration and their conflict. He consequently shows how the differing interests, power, and capabilities of the three groups have combined to produce a system promoting industrialization that benefits the elite partnership but excludes the larger population from the rewards of growth.