Politics and Policy Implementation: Project Renewal in Israel

215 Pages·1994·32.403 MB·English

by  Frederick A. Lazin

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Politics and Policy
Implementation
Project Renewal in Israel
Frederick A. Lazin
State University of New York Press
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Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 1994 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles and reviews.
For information, address State University of New York Press,
State University Plaza, Albany, N.Y. 12246
Production by M. R. Mulholland
Marketing by Fran Keneston
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lazin, Frederick A., 1943-
Politics and policy implementation: project renewal in Israel/
Frederick A. Lazin.
p. em. - (SUNY series in Israeli studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7914-1691-7 (alk. paper). -ISBN 0-7914-1692-5 (pbk.:
alk. paper)
1. Project Renewal (Israel). 2. Urban renewal-Israel.
3. Community development, Urban-Israel. I. Title. IT. Series.
HT178.172L39 1994
307.3'4 16'095694-dc20 92-40308
CIP
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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FoR EHuo, ELAD, AND ILAH
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contents
Preface ix
1. Introduction 1
2. Project Renewal: The Government Adopts a Policy to
End Slum Conditions and Poverty in the Jewish Sector 15
3. Program Implementation: The Gap Between
Declared Policies and Actual Practices 31
4. Implementation at the Local Level: Six Case Studies 47
5. Municipal Influence on the Implementation of
Project Renewal: The Power of the Mayors 77
6. An Experiment in Citizen Participation 91
7. Conclusions 107
Appendix 115
Abbreviations 127
Hebrew Terms 129
Notes 131
Bibliography 169
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Preface
I first became interested in policy implementation as a participant
in a graduate seminar conducted by Theodore Lowi at the University of
Chicago in 1968. This led me to write a Ph.D. thesis under his supervi
sion on the failure of a federal agency to implement its low-income
housing programs at the municipal level. The research revealed that
under the leadership of Richard J. Daley, the City of Chicago built and
operated federal public housing programs to exclude Blacks from living
in white neighborhoods. Although these practices clearly violated the
United States Constitution, federal laws, and agency regulations, federal
officials funded, supported and defended Chicago's public housing
policies (see Lazin 1973, 1987). They had been coopted to serve domi
nant local interests (Selznick 1966).
Since coming to Israel in 1975, I have focused my research on pol
icy implementation, intergovernmental relations, and comparisons
between federal and unitary systems. To my surprise the highly cen
tralized and hierarchical unitary governmental system of Israel often
behaves like a federal system; in many cases local-level governments,
lacking the authority of federal counterparts, are able to influence the
implementation of national policies within their jurisdictions (Lazin
1980, 1987).
The genesis of this book began at a conference on urban problems
in Essen, Germany, in 1981. At the meetings, organized by Hellmut
Wollmann, several scholars discussed a comparative research project on
policy implementation that Douglas Ashford, then at Cornell, had
begun to organize.
Ashford proposed that an international group of scholars examine
the implementation of similar policies in their respective countries to
determine how local-level actors and institutions influence the imple
mentation process. Ashford's plan suggested that participants exam
ine policies in at least three areas, including social welfare and com
munity development (Ashford 1990).
On returning home, I began to develop a proposal for an Israeli
component to the project. At the time, David Amiran of the Jerusalem
Institute of Israel Studies of the Hebrew University asked me to submit
a research proposal in some area of urban affairs. I agreed and decided
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X Preface
to combine the research with Ashford's international project.
In preparing the proposal, I chose to focus on Project Renewal, a
hybrid of the American War on Poverty and Model Cities programs,
and the major community development and social welfare program of
the Begin government. My previous research on public housing, urban
renewal, and community development in the United States influenced
this decision. Moreover, the involvement of several ministries, the Jew
ish Agency, and overseas Jewish communities made the project ideal for
an implementation study. I wondered if the many independent actors
would be able to coordinate their efforts? Most important, however,
the politics of Project Renewal fascinated me. An unwritten law of
Israeli politics held that a minority party could not control a major
domestic program in a Likud-dominated government. Yet, Deputy
Prime Minister Yigal Yadin of a minority coalition party headed the
program.
The initial research design focused on the issue of the influence of
local-level actors on the implementation of governmental social wel
fare policies. Following an examination of the national program I con
ducted a series of case studies of Project Renewal's implementation at
the local level. A lack of time and resources prevented additional stud
ies of other policies.
In conducting the research, I initially relied on the top-down
implementation literature, in particular, Pressman and Wildavsky
(1973), Majone and Wildavsky (1978), Van Horn and Van Meter (1976),
Van Meter and Van Horn (1975), Rein and Rabinowitz (1978), and Bar
dach (1977). This approach emphasizes the importance of a formal or
declared policy and seeks to understand whether or not its goals were
achieved. Later I expanded my own understanding of other approaches
to the study of policy implementation, including bottom up, which
influenced the evaluation of the findings of the field work. This
approach, as presented in works by Barrett and Fudge 1981a; Berman
1978, 1980; Elmore 1977; and Hjern 1983, stresses evolution and adap
tion of formal goals to the political and socioeconomic environment.
Upon completion of the Project Renewal study for the Ashford
Project, I decided to expand the research into a book-length manuscript.
Emphasis shifted to the broader issue of how Israel's dominant political
institutions-coalition government, party-controlled ministries, an inde
pendent Jewish Agency, powerful mayors, and ethnic politics-influ
ence policy implementation. The findings and analysis help clarify the
study of policy implementation and, in particular, the top-down versus
bottom-up debate.
The Jerusalem Institute provided resources and facilities to con-
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