The challenge of sustaining democracy in deeply divided societies

"Ayelet Harel-Shalev offers a path-breaking, genuine, and astute comparison between two highly divided societies--India and Israel--examining how they could have survived with democratic structures for about sixty years heretofore. While harnessing an impressive bulk of original primary sources, this book offers some remarkable and vital arguments. It is a must-read and an enjoyable book."--Gad Barzilai, University of Washington. "Harel-Shalev's study is outstanding. Finally, a cogent and intelligent analysis of the myriad ways deeply divided societies maintain and negotiate democratic practices. This book will prove to be essential reading for anyone interested in the topics of identity politics, public policy, and democracy."--Rebecca Kook, Ben Gurion University. "Harel-Shalev's surprising choice of comparative case studies offers original insight into the way by which public policies that aim at legal institutionalization of rights may provide both political stability and gradual counter-hegemonic transformation. Her analysis is of particular significance for those interested in learning new ways of thinking about the interplay between democratic political processes and majority-minority relations in deeply divided societies."--Dan Avnon, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In this book, Ayelet Harel-Shalev analyzes public policy and governmental features in procedurally democratic states that govern deeply divided societies. The book traces the political formula that enables such states to survive while sustaining a democratic process in the face of religious, ethnic, and national conflicts. It investigates citizenship discourses, analyzes the mechanisms political regimes use to give rights to minorities while simultaneously limiting their power, and illustrates how this unique political formula can be applied in two case studies of vastly different countries--Israel and India. The analogous conflicts in India and Israel that threaten the survival of democracy--the ethno-religious conflict between Hindus and Muslims in India and the ethno-national conflict between Jews and Arab-Palestinians in Israel--are analyzed in depth. In addition, the core cases of India and Israel, states in which democracy has survived for over sixty years, are compared with two additional countries where democracy was short-lived. This issue is especially pertinent to the world today, as many young nations currently in the process of state building are coping with the challenges inherent in building democratic institutions in plural and polarized societies. The book explores the inherent tension between the conflicting logics of democracy, citizenship, and nation-state, and suggests enhanced tools for investigating societies in which this tension exists. --Book Jacket.