Public willingness to compromise is often described as a necessary precursor to conflict resolution. Alon Yakter and Liran Harsgor take on a central debate: do changing expectations about the prospects for peace cause people to become more willing to make concessions, or do prior ideological commitments shape biased forecasts about the future? Resolving this question matters for how policymakers and mediators should try to build public support for peace deals.
A substantial observational literature links collective victimhood to conflict-enhancing attitudes, but experimental evidence is mixed. This research revisits that puzzle in a context where increasing the salience of collective victimhood—the state-led framing around Israel's Holocaust Memorial Day—would be especially likely to change attitudes.
This study investigates how Israeli military road obstacles in the West Bank during the Second Intifada affected Palestinian employment patterns. Using geospatial data, it reveals that these barriers blocked peri-urban commuters from reaching commercial centers and crossings, reducing their employability but simultaneously boosting opportunities for centrally located Palestinians.
Electoral competition sharpens divisions among voters in Israel.
Contrasting views persist in political science regarding elected officials' decision-making. Some assume politicians act more strategically than citizens; others suggest their traits amplify choice biases.
Diverse societies often feature exclusionary preferences, yet cross-group cooperation is increasingly vital. Using a large-scale lab-in-the-field experiment in Israel, this study investigates how Jewish citizens' exclusionary attitudes toward Palestinian Citizens of Israel (PCIs) predict costly non-cooperation on collective action problems.
New research explores how ethnic composition influences judicial outcomes in multiethnic societies, specifically within Israel's criminal appeals courts. Contrary to what might be expected in the U.S., this study finds that while a panel with at least one Arab judge leads to significantly more lenient punishments for Arab defendants—resulting in a 14-20% reduction in incarceration and a 15-26% drop in prison sentences—the same isn't true for Jewish defendants. Their appeals outcomes remain unaffected by the ethnic makeup of their panels.
Political parties are central mediators between citizens and the state, but scholars rarely investigate how party internal processes shape citizens’ evaluations of democracy. Yael Shomer, Gert-Jan Put, and Einat Gedalya-Lavy ask whether the way parties choose their candidates—how democratic or closed those procedures are—affects voters’ satisfaction with how democracy works in their country.