Institutional layering, displacement, and policy change: The evolution of civic service in Israel
| DOI | 10.1177/0952076715624272 |
| Author | Etta Bick |
| Published date | 01 October 2016 |
| Date | 01 October 2016 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Public Policy and Administration
2016, Vol. 31(4) 342–360
!The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0952076715624272
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Article
Institutional layering,
displacement, and policy
change: The evolution
of civic service in Israel
Etta Bick
Ariel University, Ariel, Israel
Abstract
This study explores the process of endogenous institutional change. It utilizes the
concepts policy layering and displacement to explain gradual but yet significant and
cumulative institutional change that has taken place in civic national service policy in
Israel. Layering was an expedient strategy of change given the highly charged politics
surrounding national service and the opposition of ultra-orthodox and Israel’s Arab
citizens to any form of service. While the government and administrative agencies were
the primary agents of change, we will also take note of the important and contentious
role of Israel’s High Court of Justice which served as a catalyst to policy change,
compelling the government to end policy drift. However, it is important to note that
judicial intervention may also derail gradual reform as will be shown in the Israeli case.
Keywords
Civic service, institutional change, institutional layering, Israel High Court, policy drift,
policy displacement
A quiet revolution has been taking place in civic national service in Israel, a change
which may have a far reaching effect on relations between Israel’s Jewish majority
and minority groups and their integration into Israeli society. It will have an impact
on employment rates and will encourage many who up until now were often not
employed, ultra-orthodox men, Bedouin and Druze
1
women, to join the work force.
Through a series of policy amendments the opportunity to volunteer to civic
national service has been extended to sectors that hitherto were exempted or
deferred from service. Primarily through a gradual process of “layering”, adding
new rules and institutions alongside existing institutions and “displacement”,
Corresponding author:
Etta Bick, Ariel University, Ariel 40700, Israel.
Email: ettab@ariel.ac.il
replacing or amending existing legislation, Israel has undergone a process of change
that has been incremental but may be cumulatively transformative.
This article explores the process of endogenous institutional change using the
example of civic national service policy in Israel. It will utilize the concepts of
layering, displacement and policy drift, as developed by Mahoney and Thelen
(2010), and others to explore processes of gradual but yet significant and transfor-
mative change in public policy in a country with deep ethnic and religious cleavages
and a multi-party system that reflects and fortifies these divisions. It will show that
through a slow but gradual process of policy layering new populations and new
programs could be added to an existing policy model and limited change achieved
despite the strong opposition of minority groups and the reluctance of a powerful
institution, the Israeli military. Layering proved to be an effective mode of policy
change when more far reaching measures would have been met with significant
opposition by target populations.
In democratic systems, laws and rules which define and regulate public policy
are the result of deliberation and compromise. They reflect the prevailing power
relations between sectors in society and the dominant interests of the majority.
Once defined and translated into law, they endure over time, hence their categor-
ization as institutions. Institutions may be defined as “formal or informal proce-
dures, routines, norms and conventions in the organizational structure of the polity
or the political economy” (Amenta and Ramsey, 2010: 16). While stability and
durability are characteristics of institutions, it is also clear that transformations and
changes do occur.
The question of when and how changes take place has challenged public policy
theorists. Historical institutionalists, Paul Pierson (2004) and Theda Skocpol
(1995) for example adopt a punctuated equilibrium model that conceptualizes
institutions as being relatively stable, with historical trajectories that begin in a
past point in time and follow a determined path of development into the future.
Major changes that occur are episodic and discontinuous, usually caused by such
exogenous factors as revolutions, wars, occupation or financial collapse (Skocpol
and Pierson, 2002). Others have suggested that punctuated change can also be the
product of endogenous shocks and pressures which create policy change from
within (True et al., 2007). Punctuated change requires the meeting of the right
kind of change agent with the propitious political conditions that will allow for
major change to occur. It is characterized by an alternating pattern of long periods
of the status quo and occasional significant, periods of punctuated change. Policy
in a particular sphere remains relatively stable and continuous until sparked by new
circumstances or new groups that demand major policy transformation.
Conceptually, change is viewed as a series of large steps that break the policy
maintenance pattern which then creates a new status quo until the next shock
induces change (Mahoney, 2010).
Similarly Kingdon (1995), in his discussion of major policy shifts in the United
States (US), proposes that major policy change is often the result of the successful
convergence of three process streams during a short “window of opportunity”.
Bick 343
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