Dismantling the welfare state from the left? Localization of global ideas in the case of Israel’s 1998 Public Housing Law

Abstract

The article considers the contribution of actors not usually associated with globalization and liberalization to the institutionalization of neoliberalism. Neoliberal projects are considered to integrate global models with local values. Thus, the main battlegrounds are domestic arenas. Most analyses focus on powerful agents associated with neoliberalism. However, other actors may have a supportive role. In legislating Israel’s Public Housing Law in 1998, aimed at selling public dwellings to tenants, left-wing politicians, ‘social’ interest groups and tenants embraced the discourse and goals of privatization. To explain this anomaly, one must understand the weakness of social democracy among the Israeli left and the centrality of Jewish-Zionist nationalism: in effect, supporters of the law integrated neoliberal discourses of privatization with local discourses of republicanism to advance populist privatization. In this article, the author discusses this concept and elaborates on the perceptions, roles and contributions of actors not associated with neoliberalism to local neoliberal projects.