Shlomo Mizrahi
Biographic Data
| ID | 640927 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Shlomo Mizrahi |
| GIVEN NAMES | Shlomo |
| FAMILY NAME | Mizrahi |
| SIGNATURE | MIZRAHI S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Ben-Gurion University of the Negev |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6531-6557 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 47 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 157 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 47 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Instrumental Approach to Institutional Corruption
This article explores the mechanisms through which institutional corruption and engagement in corruption at the societal level may be normalized to the extent that citizens adopt an instrumental approach to corruption. Such an approach means that the public accepts corrupt practices and sees them as reasonable, as long as they achieve results that they see as beneficial. We develop a theoretical framework that includes institutional and behaviora…
Trusting the Gatekeeper
We reveal the sources of public trust in state audit institutions as a major gatekeeper of good governance. Based on rationales developed in trust research and democratic theory, we test our hypotheses using a survey distributed to Israeli citizens. Our findings indicate that trust in the political system and citizens' perceptions about the strength of the civic supervision are directly related to their trust in state audit institutions. We ident…
Putting auditing in the context of democratic governance
Institutional Trust, Corruption, and Democracy
This article investigates the relationships between corruption, democracy and trust in government, emphasizing the effect of societal norms that support corruption on these relationships. The empirical analysis uses data collected by the World Value Survey (Round 7) about citizens’ evaluations and perceptions about these issues. The findings show that social norms that see corruption as legitimate weaken the negative effect of actual institutiona…
Civic engagement moving online
We live in a technologically advanced era with a marked dependence on digital technologies. Simultaneously, we face increasingly frequent and diverse large-scale emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Civic engagement refers to the range of activities of people working to impact public life in communities, both offline and online. This study investigates the antecedents of online emergency-oriented civic engagement. We focus on states of emer…
Public management during a crisis
Institutional emergency management has become an integral part of public management practice and research. This paper investigates the factors related to people’s willingness to contribute to institutional emergency preparedness. We explore the relationships between this willingness and people’s perceptions about the likelihood of government handling emergencies effectively, the risks of emergencies, and their relationship with public sector orga…
Employability and training
One of the main challenges in modern labour markets is to improve the mobility and employability of workers among workplaces, jobs and roles. This paper explores the factors that might influence people’s beliefs about and attitudes towards the mechanisms for improving employability through training. We develop a research model and test it in Israel using surveys that were distributed at two points in time – before and during an acute crisis in th…
Public Accountability and Bureaucratic Discretion
Our goal is to identify the factors that encourage internal auditors in the public sector to use their discretion when conducting audits. By investigating multiple relationships between principals and agents, we show how complex structural conditions and accountability pressures influence public auditors’ discretion in the choice of audits they decide to conduct. To test our theoretical model and hypotheses, we created a closed-ended questionnair…
The digital governance puzzle
Public accountability and auditing
Public servants who monitor and supervise the administrative and political systems must consider the extent to which they are willing to stretch the boundaries of their role for holding public servants accountable. We develop an analytical framework of the factors that influence the decisions of such officials, focusing on state auditors. Using new institutionalism, we suggest that the social, cultural, and political context figures more prominen…
Citizens’ reactions to global crises
Performance management, gaming and regulatory monitoring
This paper addresses the problems of gaming behaviour as expressed in untruthful reporting, manipulation of data and performance measures, and distortion of information. We apply game-theoretical principal-agent reasoning that refers to the marginal costs and benefits of gaming and oversight, pointing to policy measures for ensuring more effort exerted in productive activity rather than in gaming activity. These measures are the regulatory monito…
Accountability, governance, and institutional change in intergovernmental relations
This article develops an explanatory framework of institutional change in intergovernmental relations. Using new institutionalism, we focus on a main explanatory factor—the players' perceptions of their own accountability and that of others. Integrating the concepts of multiple accountability and felt accountability, we develop the concept of an accountability gap, meaning differences between the perceptions of players in the central government a…
Exploring civic engagement dynamics during emergencies
This article investigates the importance of civic engagement during emergencies. We consider various individual-level factors such as trust, risk cognition, fears about the emergency and cost–benefit analyses of engagement as factors that motivate citizens to become engaged. We argue that governments should recognise the value of community initiatives and civic engagement in coping with emergencies. Our empirical investigation uses data collected…
Compliance with government policies during emergencies
When and why do citizens comply with government policies and restrictions during emergencies? We investigate possible answers to this question. We propose a mediation model where trust in government and emergency organizations as well as perceived government effectiveness mediate the relationships between participation in decision making and the willingness to comply. We also utilize the protective action decision‐making model where perceptions a…
How Well Do They Manage a Crisis? The Government's Effectiveness During the Covid‐19 Pandemic
The COVID‐19 pandemic clearly highlighted the importance of effective crisis management and its relationship with citizens’ willingness to cooperate with the government in such turbulent times. We develop a theory and hypotheses about the impact of citizens' experiences on their perceptions of the government's effectiveness during times of crisis. We do so with data collected at two points in time: in late March 2020 during the first peak of the …
Cascading disasters, information cascades and continuous time models of domino effects
Government’s social responsibility, citizen satisfaction and trust
This article investigates the complex relationships between citizens’ perceptions about the government’s social responsibility, their satisfaction with public services and their trust in government institutions. It uses data from a national survey of citizens in Israel and focuses on satisfaction with health care. We build on previous bureaucratic and administrative theory, and suggest two competing models of these relationships: (1) perceptions …
Collective action of ethno-national minority groups and the cost of inaction
Collective action requires resources, organization, leaders and political opportunities. In the case of disadvantaged minority groups, long-standing conflict with the majority, a closed political opportunity structure and the difficulty of acquiring resources, increases the costs and risks of the action. We argue that the development of such an action is a function of leaders’ perceptions about the cost of inaction (COI) and symbolic resources of…
Performance management, gaming and monitoring in Israeli organisations
Recent comparative measures rank Israel very high on the innovation scale and note its preference for informal managerial practices. Based on a principal–agent analysis, this article explains that the economic and administrative systems in Israel have created the basis for the evolution of a managerial culture characterised by constant distortions and the gaming of performance information, lack of truthful reporting and improvisation. On the posi…
Governance and Policy Making
Cet article présente le décalage de plus en plus important qui existe entre le mode de gouvernance de l’État d’Israël et les défis que celui-ci doit affronter. Ces problèmes ont pour origine la culture civique et politique d’Israël mais aussi le déclin de la solidarité sociale et de la confiance des citoyens vis-à-vis des pouvoirs publics. La présentation des principaux problèmes que connaissent l’État et la société israélienne permet d’identifie…
The relevance and reliability of performance information for accountability
This study explores the impact of the configuration of performance information on citizens' perceptions regarding the impact of the information on their lives and the reliability they assign to it. We conducted a survey experiment among a representative sample of the Israeli population. The treatment included the object being measured, the identity of those who manage the performance management mechanism, and the trend of the results. We also com…
Economic conditions, government effectiveness and public attitudes towards the welfare state
Alternative Politics and Attitudes toward the Welfare State
This article introduces and explores two interesting phenomena: the phenomenon of alternative politics and attitudes toward the welfare state. The concept of alternative politics refers to a “do‐it‐yourself” approach where citizens on their own adopt extra‐legal, and often illegal, strategies to improve the services provided by the government. Through a theoretical framework and empirical model, we explore the extent to which attitudes toward alt…
A New Institutionalism Analysis of Performance Management Reform
This paper studies incremental institutional change. It integrates various rationales suggested in the literature and uses the resulting integration to explain managerial reforms in the public sector, specifically, performance management reforms. The analysis highlights the role of public officials as institutional entrepreneurs and provides tools for explaining their strategies for change. The empirical analysis explains the dynamics through whi…
Public Sector Management and the Democratic Ethos
This article deals with the nexus between bureaucracy and democracy in a management-oriented public sector. The article develops the idea that public administration plays a major role in determining citizens’ political attitudes and behaviors. A theoretical model is suggested to examine the relationship among citizens’ perceptions of involvement and participation in administrative decision making, perceived managerial quality, perceived public se…
Political Participation through the Judicial System
Political culture, alternative politics and foreign policy
Public attitudes towards the welfare state and public policy
This article provides data and insights into Israeli public opinion about the welfare state and social policy. The study included 940 respondents who reported their attitudes towards various issues related to the welfare state. The study was conducted in spring 2008 prior to the current economic crisis. The findings show that, to a large extent, the Israeli public justifies state intervention in the supply of public services, supports public inve…
The relevance and reliability of performance information for accountability
This study explores the impact of the configuration of performance information on citizens' perceptions regarding the impact of the information on their lives and the reliability they assign to it. We conducted a survey experiment among a representative sample of the Israeli population. The treatment included the object being measured, the identity of those who manage the performance management mechanism, and the trend of the results. We also com…
Compliance with government policies during emergencies
When and why do citizens comply with government policies and restrictions during emergencies? We investigate possible answers to this question. We propose a mediation model where trust in government and emergency organizations as well as perceived government effectiveness mediate the relationships between participation in decision making and the willingness to comply. We also utilize the protective action decision‐making model where perceptions a…
Alternative Politics and Attitudes toward the Welfare State
This article introduces and explores two interesting phenomena: the phenomenon of alternative politics and attitudes toward the welfare state. The concept of alternative politics refers to a “do‐it‐yourself” approach where citizens on their own adopt extra‐legal, and often illegal, strategies to improve the services provided by the government. Through a theoretical framework and empirical model, we explore the extent to which attitudes toward alt…
Comparative Implications
This paper explores the relationship between the strategic behavior drawn from a given political culture and adopted by citizens and decision makers, and the characteristics of policy-making processes. Specifically, this paper advances the concept of alternative politics to describe a “do-it-yourself” approach where citizens on their own adopt extra-legal, and often illegal, strategies to improve their political outcomes. The paper explains the c…
Privatization Through Centralization in the Israeli Health Care System
This article addresses a policy paradox that characterizes many health care systems and the Israeli system in particular, that is, the existence of two parallel yet seemingly contradictory policy trends: reducing public financing for health care services while increasing governmental involvement in health-system management. The authors characterize this process as privatization through centralization; that is, to control welfare-state expenses an…
Alternative Politics and the Transformation of Society–Military Relations
This article attempts to explain transformations in military—society relations using models developed in the context of political participation and social learning. The authors suggest that patterns of alternative politics might evolve from the undermining of the “republican contract,” that is, the exchange between citizens' military sacrifice and the rights and rewards granted to them by the state. This situation creates growing dissatisfaction …
Public accountability and auditing
Public servants who monitor and supervise the administrative and political systems must consider the extent to which they are willing to stretch the boundaries of their role for holding public servants accountable. We develop an analytical framework of the factors that influence the decisions of such officials, focusing on state auditors. Using new institutionalism, we suggest that the social, cultural, and political context figures more prominen…
The challenge of diversity management
Government’s social responsibility, citizen satisfaction and trust
This article investigates the complex relationships between citizens’ perceptions about the government’s social responsibility, their satisfaction with public services and their trust in government institutions. It uses data from a national survey of citizens in Israel and focuses on satisfaction with health care. We build on previous bureaucratic and administrative theory, and suggest two competing models of these relationships: (1) perceptions …
Two-Level Collective Action and Group Identity
We examine how group membership influences individual decisions with respect to joining a mass political struggle, under the assumption that group members have a strong group identity, expressed by a strong commitment to group decisions. We suggest a two-level theoretical game model in which, in the first stage, an individual calculates the costs and benefits of participation at the group level and then he/she calculates the costs and benefits of…
A New Institutionalism Analysis of Performance Management Reform
This paper studies incremental institutional change. It integrates various rationales suggested in the literature and uses the resulting integration to explain managerial reforms in the public sector, specifically, performance management reforms. The analysis highlights the role of public officials as institutional entrepreneurs and provides tools for explaining their strategies for change. The empirical analysis explains the dynamics through whi…
Black‐market Medicine and Public Opinion Towards the Welfare State
Based on a survey and interviews, this article presents and analyses Israeli public opinion toward black‐market medicine (BMM) and the welfare state. In addition to providing quantitative and qualitative evidence of the existence of under‐the‐table payments in Israel, we suggest various insights into this phenomenon. While most citizens admit that they would consider making under‐the‐table payments in order to receive preferential medical treatme…
Institutional Trust, Corruption, and Democracy
This article investigates the relationships between corruption, democracy and trust in government, emphasizing the effect of societal norms that support corruption on these relationships. The empirical analysis uses data collected by the World Value Survey (Round 7) about citizens’ evaluations and perceptions about these issues. The findings show that social norms that see corruption as legitimate weaken the negative effect of actual institutiona…
The bureaucracy democracy tango
The relationship between bureaucracy and democracy in modern nations has gained the attention of scholars and experts worldwide. This article uses the allegory of a tango dance to illuminate core pandemics of the bureaucracy–democracy interface. First, we propose a theoretical model that relates these arenas in the public realm. The model is then tested empirically based on four in-depth field studies of Israeli public sector organisations (in th…
Public Accountability and Bureaucratic Discretion
Our goal is to identify the factors that encourage internal auditors in the public sector to use their discretion when conducting audits. By investigating multiple relationships between principals and agents, we show how complex structural conditions and accountability pressures influence public auditors’ discretion in the choice of audits they decide to conduct. To test our theoretical model and hypotheses, we created a closed-ended questionnair…
The digital governance puzzle
Accountability, governance, and institutional change in intergovernmental relations
This article develops an explanatory framework of institutional change in intergovernmental relations. Using new institutionalism, we focus on a main explanatory factor—the players' perceptions of their own accountability and that of others. Integrating the concepts of multiple accountability and felt accountability, we develop the concept of an accountability gap, meaning differences between the perceptions of players in the central government a…
Exploring civic engagement dynamics during emergencies
This article investigates the importance of civic engagement during emergencies. We consider various individual-level factors such as trust, risk cognition, fears about the emergency and cost–benefit analyses of engagement as factors that motivate citizens to become engaged. We argue that governments should recognise the value of community initiatives and civic engagement in coping with emergencies. Our empirical investigation uses data collected…
A Two-Level Analysis of Israel’s Strategy toward Peace during the 1990s
This paper suggests a two-level game analysis of Israel’s strategy toward peace during the 1990s. The paper shows how various paradoxes in Israeli society create domestic obstacles and internal opposition that weaken Israel’s bargaining position toward neighboring countries. Treating domestic parameters in these countries as a given, we argue that Israeli leaders can hardly use this weakness to manipulate information in the bargaining process, be…
Two-Level Collective Action and Group Identity
We examine how group membership influences individual decisions with respect to joining a mass political struggle, under the assumption that group members have a strong group identity, expressed by a strong commitment to group decisions. We suggest a two-level theoretical game model in which, in the first stage, an individual calculates the costs and benefits of participation at the group level and then he/she calculates the costs and benefits of…
Attitudes of Negev Beduins toward organ donation
Continuous Time Models of Collective Action and Political Change
Quality requirements in rapidly growing higher education systems
Quality requirements in rapidly growing higher education systems
A continuous time model of the bandwagon effect in collective action
A Two-Level Analysis of Israel’s Strategy toward Peace during the 1990s
This paper suggests a two-level game analysis of Israel’s strategy toward peace during the 1990s. The paper shows how various paradoxes in Israeli society create domestic obstacles and internal opposition that weaken Israel’s bargaining position toward neighboring countries. Treating domestic parameters in these countries as a given, we argue that Israeli leaders can hardly use this weakness to manipulate information in the bargaining process, be…
Political Participation through the Judicial System
The Political Economy of Water Policy in Israel
This article argues that the power of a sectorial interest group and its influence on public policy can be evaluated according to the level of centralization of the political, economic and bureaucratic systems, as well as the level and type of political participation at the social level. The essay presents the basic models dealing with these issues within public choice theory, and applies them to water policy in Israel. The article shows that ine…
Political culture, alternative politics and foreign policy
Public Sector Management and the Democratic Ethos
This article deals with the nexus between bureaucracy and democracy in a management-oriented public sector. The article develops the idea that public administration plays a major role in determining citizens’ political attitudes and behaviors. A theoretical model is suggested to examine the relationship among citizens’ perceptions of involvement and participation in administrative decision making, perceived managerial quality, perceived public se…
Israel since 1980
Over the last quarter century, a radical demographic, economic and political transformation has been taking place from within Israel. Israelis are beginning to ask some fundamental questions about the country they live in and what it means to be an Israeli. This book, written by five Israeli academics, probes the changing nature of Israeli society over the last twenty-five years. It considers the deep rifts in that society caused by ethnic, cultu…
Sport Policy in a Transformed Socio-Political Setting
This article describes the impact of socio-political transformation processes on sport policy through the Israeli experience. A framework was developed for analyzing learning processes, utilizing the argument that under highly centralized systems, citizens' preferences regarding any area of life, including sport, are strongly affected by governmental policy. We show that in Israel the lack of a significant sport policy during the centralized form…
Alternative Politics and the Transformation of Society–Military Relations
This article attempts to explain transformations in military—society relations using models developed in the context of political participation and social learning. The authors suggest that patterns of alternative politics might evolve from the undermining of the “republican contract,” that is, the exchange between citizens' military sacrifice and the rights and rewards granted to them by the state. This situation creates growing dissatisfaction …
The bureaucracy democracy tango
The relationship between bureaucracy and democracy in modern nations has gained the attention of scholars and experts worldwide. This article uses the allegory of a tango dance to illuminate core pandemics of the bureaucracy–democracy interface. First, we propose a theoretical model that relates these arenas in the public realm. The model is then tested empirically based on four in-depth field studies of Israeli public sector organisations (in th…
The Relationship Between the Supreme Court and Parliament in Light of the Theory of Moves
The relationship between the Supreme Court and the legislature has been studied from various angles. This paper develops a dynamic model using the Theory of Moves. The model is then applied to a path-dependence analysis of the relations between the Supreme Court and the parliament in Israel between 1970 and 2007. While at the beginning of this period the Supreme Court limited the ability of citizens to appeal in matters concerning decisions of th…
Public attitudes towards the welfare state and public policy
This article provides data and insights into Israeli public opinion about the welfare state and social policy. The study included 940 respondents who reported their attitudes towards various issues related to the welfare state. The study was conducted in spring 2008 prior to the current economic crisis. The findings show that, to a large extent, the Israeli public justifies state intervention in the supply of public services, supports public inve…
Self‐Provision of Public Services
This article establishes a framework for explaining the ways in which citizens, as clients of public services, attempt to deal with situations of combined market and government failures. Under certain conditions, citizens are driven to create self‐production mechanisms that often are extralegal or illegal. When faced with such social initiatives, politicians often support them, either passively or actively, by institutionalizing the new mechanism…
Comparative Implications
This paper explores the relationship between the strategic behavior drawn from a given political culture and adopted by citizens and decision makers, and the characteristics of policy-making processes. Specifically, this paper advances the concept of alternative politics to describe a “do-it-yourself” approach where citizens on their own adopt extra-legal, and often illegal, strategies to improve their political outcomes. The paper explains the c…
Black‐market Medicine and Public Opinion Towards the Welfare State
Based on a survey and interviews, this article presents and analyses Israeli public opinion toward black‐market medicine (BMM) and the welfare state. In addition to providing quantitative and qualitative evidence of the existence of under‐the‐table payments in Israel, we suggest various insights into this phenomenon. While most citizens admit that they would consider making under‐the‐table payments in order to receive preferential medical treatme…
Privatization Through Centralization in the Israeli Health Care System
This article addresses a policy paradox that characterizes many health care systems and the Israeli system in particular, that is, the existence of two parallel yet seemingly contradictory policy trends: reducing public financing for health care services while increasing governmental involvement in health-system management. The authors characterize this process as privatization through centralization; that is, to control welfare-state expenses an…
The challenge of diversity management
A New Institutionalism Analysis of Performance Management Reform
This paper studies incremental institutional change. It integrates various rationales suggested in the literature and uses the resulting integration to explain managerial reforms in the public sector, specifically, performance management reforms. The analysis highlights the role of public officials as institutional entrepreneurs and provides tools for explaining their strategies for change. The empirical analysis explains the dynamics through whi…
Alternative Politics and Attitudes toward the Welfare State
This article introduces and explores two interesting phenomena: the phenomenon of alternative politics and attitudes toward the welfare state. The concept of alternative politics refers to a “do‐it‐yourself” approach where citizens on their own adopt extra‐legal, and often illegal, strategies to improve the services provided by the government. Through a theoretical framework and empirical model, we explore the extent to which attitudes toward alt…
Economic conditions, government effectiveness and public attitudes towards the welfare state
Political science (40 works) · Politics (30 works) · Law (29 works) · Economics (26 works) · Law (25 works) · Business (22 works) · Public Administration (17 works) · Psychology (16 works) · Public Administration (16 works) · Public relations (16 works)