Research

What does it mean for citizens in democracies to be represented? Does it even matter? Representation theories and studies have mostly emphasized the representatives, giving only limited attention to the represented. In this paper, we address this lacuna by adopting Hanna Pitkin’s multidimensionality of representation and the act-for/stand-for tiered structure she posits, along with a reconceptualization of dyadic and collective representation as a matrix (rather than a dichotomy). We develop theoretically (and examine empirically) how citizens perceive all of Pitkin’s dimensions concurrently and their tiered structure at two points on the dyadic-collective matrix: representation by a politician/party and representation by the parliament. We develop a novel set of questions, based on in-depth interviews and designed to capture Pitkin’s theoretical concept of representation empirically among citizens. Utilizing the 2019-20 Israel National Election Studies, we find that citizens’ subjective patterns of representation are Pitkinian - multidimensional and tiered - across dyadic and collective representation. We further find that these patterns contribute to citizens’ overall feeling of representation, and that multidimensional representation, especially by the parliament (where they feel less represented), promotes support for democracy. Our study calls for more focus on representation from the citizens’ standpoint.

[Manusript] 

The 2019-2020 election cycle was focused on Netanyahu, the incumbent Prime Minister for over a decade. Second on these elections’ agenda was the ‘future of the Israeli democracy”. We build on the literature of political personalization, which places Israel high on the list of countries that went through personalization, to examine whether and how Netanyahu has come to embody attitudes toward democratic principles and values in this election cycle. We call this neglected manifestation of centralized personalization "personification" and find evidence for it beyond already-documented political and sociological sources of democratic support. Netanyahu personifies authoritarian views and, to a lesser extent, also illiberal approaches. We suggest that personification may be a mechanism of democratic regression, thus joining the growing public and academic concerns about "democratic backsliding" in Israel and worldwide.

[Manusript]

This paper investigates the manifestations and dynamics of delegitimization discourse within the political sphere. Focusing on the Israeli political context, the study employs a novel computational algorithm to identify and measure political delegitimization from over two million Hebrew mass-media articles and politicians’ social media posts. The research addresses the measurement and manifestation of political delegitimization, as well as the actors involved in its occurrence. The findings reveal the presence of political delegitimization discourse across the entire political spectrum, with increased occurrences preceding elections and events related to Netanyahu’s trial events. The study highlights the involvement of party leaders in such discourse and identifies the act of joining a national-unity coalition as a significant factor influencing its decline. The paper contributes to the literature by expanding our understanding of delegitimization discourse within the political sphere, providing a methodological framework for its empirical investigation, and raising important questions about its implications for politics and society. The paper concludes with suggestions for further research and emphasizes the fundamental danger that delegitimization discourse poses to democratic debate.

[Manusript]  [Slides]

The Existing research recognizes the critical role of symbolic identities in the political domain as they have the power to affect social attitudes, political identities, voting patterns, party assessments, and much more. Evidence suggests that social identity develops in early childhood and remains stable throughout individuals’ lifespan. However, a growing body of literature argues that political leaders may use rhetorical acts to entrepreneur identities, thus unifying their potential supporters around specific identities. This paper explores the relationship between politicians’ discourse on social media and the stability of symbolic identities among the public. We use unique data sets collected over four years, drawn from two main sources: (1) a computational content analysis of political discourse that measured and classified symbolic political identities; (2) a 14-wave panel that measured the respondents’ degree of identification with symbolic identities. We find that at the aggregate level, there is no connection between the frequency of politicians’ use of specific identities and their prominence among the public. Thus, it is evident that although the intensity of politicians’ use of identities varies, the degree of the public’s identification with these identities remains stable. Surprisingly, when we examine the individual level, we find that identities are dynamic and changing. We find that respondents who are exposed to politicians’ discourse on social media are significantly more inclined to change their identification over time. These findings contribute in several ways to our understanding of both the (in)stability of symbolic identities and the ability of leaders’ political rhetoric to influence the electorate.

[Slides]

Political identity is a significant and fundamental part of an individual’s identity. Despite the vast interest in the concept of political identity, in the way it is formed and crystallized, in its meaning and implications, to the best of my knowledge, there have been no theoretical or empirical investigations into processes of deconstruction of political identities. In this paper, I propose a new theory for political identity deconstruction, building on Huddy’s (2001) four factors for identity formation. I then examined through an original survey experiment the effect of political delegitimization discourse on the willingness of citizens to identify with delegitimized political groups. The findings emphasize the complex and layered nature of political delegitimization and its far-reaching implications for shaping political identity in contemporary societies. 

[Pre-Analysis Plan]  [Slides]

How do exogenous shocks shape the extent of affective polarization? While recent ‎studies have examined under which circumstances affective polarization can be ‎reduced, little attention has been given to the potential effect of exogenous shocks on ‎political systems, and their ability to reduce affective polarization. An accepted ‎assumption is that external threat perception can lead to a ‘Rally-Round-the-Flag’ ‎effect, fostering greater social cohesion. However, recent work suggests that external ‎threats do not necessarily decrease social animosity and might even increase ‎polarization. These studies often rely on simulated threats within a lab experiment or ‎addressed ongoing prolonged conflicts spanning decades, leaving a gap in ‎understanding the consequences of real-time exogenous shock. ‎

The October 7th events and the ensuing Gaza war present an opportunity to examine ‎this in Israel, a highly polarized society. Using a unique survey experiment that manipulates political and national identities, this study sheds light on the mechanism ‎that shapes affective polarization in times of crisis: the strength of political ‎identification. We find that exogenous shocks reduce effective polarization among individuals who enhance their national identity and increase among those who reinforce their political identity. Understanding this impact is crucial both for academic scholarship and for informing public policy and discourse. Exploring the effects of real-time exogenous shocks may contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how sudden, significant events can alter political and social dynamics.

Although women’s presence in parliament has significantly grown worldwide, women still constitute the largest underrepresented social group in the political arena. Some explain this by pointing at national-level cultural and institutional factors. Others emphasize the role parties’ characteristics play in facilitating women’s representation. Specifically, scholars contend that candidate selection methods affect female representation. Such work usually refers to the descriptive dimension of women’s representation, meaning to what extent female politicians occupy realistic slots in the party’s candidates list. However, representing women is not only a matter of holding political positions but also of the extent to which women-related issues are addressed. This paper examines whether the type of intra-party candidate selection method affects the amount of discourse party members (whether men or women) dedicate to women-related issues. We explore whether the candidate selection method but improves the substantive representation of women. Utilizing a supervised deep learning model, we analyze a data set comprising all national-level aspiring politicians’ Facebook posts during four election campaigns of the Israeli Parliament (65,061 posts). Our analysis indicates an overall gap in issue attention between different selection methods. Results show that a more inclusive (rather than exclusive) method is correlated with greater women’s substantive representation.

[Slides]

Despite the central role of discursive delegitimization in the political debate ‎over supremacy, little is ‎known about the processes through which social ‎agents attempt to disestablish legitimacy for ‎contested political camps. The ‎use of delegitimization to disestablish the legitimacy of the political rival is ‎present, even in highly regarded democratic societies. This paper presents a ‎new conceptualization ‎of political ‎‎delegitimization, based on Huddy’s (2001) ‎four factors for identity ‎formation. ‎Subsequently, it investigates these ‎processes of political delegitimization ‎in the context of the 2019-2022 Israeli ‎political crisis, using a novel ‎computational algorithm ‎that identifies and ‎measures political delegitimization in ‎‎‎two million Hebrew mass-media ‎articles and social ‎media posts. The paper ‎emphasizes the destructive ‎potential of political delegitimization discourse, which ‎may create a sense of ‎shame and repudiation of‎ political ‎identities. The endpoint of these processes ‎can be the eradication of ‎certain ideas from the democratic discourse and the ‎prevention of any ideological objection. ‎This means the end of the pluralistic ‎discourse, which is an absolute necessity for a ‎functional democracy.

[Manusript]  [Slides]

The relationship between political identification and attitudes has been studied extensively in recent years. While a vast amount of literature discusses the nature and construction of political identification, the process of deconstruction of political identities. has received very little theoretical or empirical attention. The Social Identity Theory suggests that when group identity contributes negatively to self-esteem under certain circumstances, ‎sometimes an individual can no longer identify with that group. This paper examines the relationship between political orientation and policy preferences in Israel from 1992 to 2019. It outlines the importance of the symbolic and expressive elements of political identity, regardless of their “ideological” ‎component.

[Manusript]  [Slides]

Democracy has been “on the ballot” in democracies around the world in recent years, becoming the subject of competing representation claims. We argue that when democracy is politicized, the support for democratic values is no longer diffuse; instead, it is linked to specific political actors who claim to represent democratic principles. Using the 2019-2021 Israeli four-election cycle as a case study, we show how the relationship between representation and democracy changes when democracy becomes a politically divisive issue. With data from the Israel National Election Studies (INES) on the first and third elections in the cycle, we find that citizens' perceptions of collective representation relate to specific democratic support – regardless of political affiliation and the politicization of democracy. Furthermore, as democracy became politicized along the election cycle, diffuse support for democratic norms remained high but became contingent upon dyadic perceptions of representation in a politically-sorted way.