Public Preferences and Institutional Designs

'A fascinating comparison of two countries that maintain marriage policies only a minority of the population prefers... Golan-Nadir offers a provocative account with implications for how policies are designed and maintained in democracies.'

-Margaret Levi, Professor of Political Science, Stanford University

'Social scientists interested in institutional development, the interplay between law and politics, and public administration will benefit from reading this original work.'

-John V.C. Nye, Professor of Economics and Bastiat Chair in Political Economy, George Mason University 'In her analysis of marriage regulation in Turkey and Israel, Niva Golan-Nadir goes beyond existing accounts of state responsiveness gaps and charts new territory by revealing the institutional politics of why states do not meet their citizens' needs. Public Preferences and Institutional Designs is a must read for everyone interested in the complex relationship between state and religion.'

-Fritz Sager, Professor of Political Science, University of Bern This book explores the existence of gaps between public preferences and institutional designs in democracies, specifically in cases in which such gaps are maintained for a long period of time without being challenged by the electorate. Gaps such as these can be seen in the complex relations between the state and religion in Israel and Turkey, and more specifically in their policies on marriage. This line of investigation is interesting both theoretically and empirically, as despite their differing policies both Israel and Turkey share a similar pattern of institutional dynamics. Existing explanations for this phenomenon suggest either civil society-based arguments or intra-institutional dynamics as reasons for the maintenance of such gaps. This book enriches our understanding of policy dynamics in democratic systems by introducing a third line of argument, one that emphasizes the effectiverole state institutions play in maintaining such arrangements for long periods of time, often against the public will.

Niva Golan-Nadir is a Research Associate at the University at Albany, SUNY, USA, and a teaching faculty member at Reichman University (IDC Herzliya) and The Open University of Israel.

Auteur
Niva Golan-Nadir is a Research Associate at the Center for Policy Research at the University of Albany, SUNY, USA, and a teaching faculty member at Reichman University (IDC Herzliya), and the Open University of Israel, Israel. She received her PhD from the School of Political Science at the University of Haifa, Israel, where she further completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the division of Public Administration and Policy. Her recent studies have been published in peer-reviewed journals such as The American Review of Public Administration and The International Review of Administrative Sciences.

Résumé
This book explores the existence of gaps between public preferences and institutional designs in democracies, and specifically cases in which such gaps are maintained for a long period of time without being challenged by the electorate. Gaps such as these can be seen in the complex relations between the state and religion in Israel and Turkey, and more specifically in their policies on marriage. This line of investigation is interesting both theoretically and empirically, as despite their poles apart policies, Israel and Turkey share a similar pattern of institutional dynamics. Existing explanations for this phenomenon suggested either civil society-based arguments or intra-institutional dynamics, as reasons for the maintenance of such gaps. This book enriches our understanding of policy dynamics in democratic systems by introducing a third line of argument, one that emphasizes the effective role state institutions play in maintaining such arrangements for long periods, often against the public will.

Contenu

1. Enduring Gaps between Public Preferences and Institutional Designs2. Conceptualizing Enduring Gaps between Public Preferences and Institutional Designs3. Researching Enduring Gaps in Comparative Research: The Data, the Methods, and the Cases4. The Israeli Case: Israel's Formation of Religious State Institutions5. The Israeli Case: The Lack of Societal Pressure to Modify the Religious Marriage Policy6. The Israeli Case: The Use of Institutional Pressure Relief Valves7. The Turkish Case-Turkey's Formation of Secular State Institutions8. The Turkish Case: The Lack of Societal Pressure to Modify Secular Marriage Policy9. The Turkish Case-The Use of Institutional Pressure Relief Valves10. Conclusion