The Elections in Israel 2022

The 2022 Israeli elections stand out as a turning point in the country’s political history. Following a period of unprecedented political instability, the right-wing government formed following the elections―Benjamin Netanyahu's sixth government―was the most radical in Israel’s history.

This book examines the 2022 Israeli elections through various theoretical perspectives and diverse research designs and data sources. The first part scrutinizes various aspects of Israeli democracy related to the elections. These include ideological and affective polarization, cleavages, voter turnout, involvement of citizens and civil organizations in election campaigns and the nature of the government that was established following the elections. The second part of the book presents studies of parties that participated in the elections: those that declined (Labor), those that ascended (Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit), and those that ascertained their power (United Torah Judaism and Shas). A valuable addition to the Elections in Israel series, the book―written by leading scholars of Israeli politics and society―touches on key themes, including political personalization, polarization, populism, the radical right, party decline and adaptation and democratic backsliding.

The book will be of particular interest to students and researchers of Israeli politics and society­―especially relating to the events of 2023 and the war in Gaza―as well as to social scientists interested in these political phenomena and their effects on democratic countries worldwide.

Gideon Rahat holds the Gersten Family Chair in Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. His research interests are the politics of reform, democratic institutions, political parties, candidate and leadership selection and political personalization.

Noam Gidron is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science and the Joint Program in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research interests focus on populism and polarization in Western democracies.

Michal Shamir is a Professor Emerita of Political Science at Tel Aviv University. Her research focuses on democratic politics, including elections, party systems, public opinion, tolerance, democratic culture, representation and democratic backsliding.