Public administration in Israel at the federal level is performed by 28 primary ministries. Ministries provide a range of services, including traditional public goods such as national defense, as well as functions unique to Israel, such as maintaining relations with the Jewish Diaspora. Historically, public expenditures have been concentrated in the defense, education, employment and healthcare sectors.Arian, Asher. “Politics in Israel: The Second Republic.” CQ Press. pp. 366-369. 2nd Edition. 2005. Local governments share responsibility for secondary schools, local healthcare, waste management, road maintenance, parks and local emergency services.Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. “Government at a Glance 2011 Country Note: Israel.” http://www.oecd.org/israel/48215127.pdf. 2011.
Each ministry is led by a minister who is typically a member of the Prime Minister's cabinet and a member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. The Office of the Prime Minister coordinates ministerial efforts and assists the Prime Minister in executing day-to-day activities. The Government Secretariat in the Prime Minister's office coordinates the rulemaking process. Because most of the Knesset's top leaders are appointed as cabinet ministers and non-cabinet members have relatively limited staff and budgetary resources at their disposal, government ministries play a dominant role in both setting and executing the public policy agenda for the State of Israel.Arian, Asher. “Politics in Israel: The Second Republic.” CQ Press. p. 376. 2nd Edition. 2005.
Israel is one of the few developed countries without a robust institutional structure for regulatory management. It has no formal central institution that advises, oversees, promotes or coordinates regulatory compliance and reform. This goes along with the lack of a comprehensive policy on regulatory management in Israel. The Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance play an important role in the law-making process by assessing regulations and laws presented by the government to the Knesset. The Attorney General reviews proposed laws for compliance with Basic Laws and constructs the legal foundation for many regulations. The Ministry of Finance drafts the central government's budget.
Ministries of the 33rd Government of the State of Israel Minister Ministry Jurisdiction Benjamin Netanyahu Foreign Affairs Foreign policy and promotion of economic, cultural and scientific relations Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs International and domestic diplomacy and state relationships with Diaspora Jewry Yitzhak Aharonovitch Public Security Public security, law enforcement and correction Uri Orbach Senior Citizens Services for senior citizens and veterans Gilad Erdan Home Front Defense Domestic defense policy and enforcement Communications Telecommunications policy and regulations Uri Yehuda Ariel Construction and Housing Construction infrastructure, housing solutions, public housing and housing mortgage subsidies Naftali Bennett Industry, Trade, and Labor Economic policy Religious Services Budgets for religious facilities and services, grants and financial assistance to religious institutions Jerusalem Affairs and the Diaspora Government relations and messaging related to the Jewish diasporaYael German Health Public health policy and healthcare servicesMoshe Ya`alon Defense Defense from internal and external military threatsMeir Cohen Social Affairs and Social Services Social welfare policy and program administration Yisrael Katz Transport, National Infrastructure, and Road Safety Land, sea and air transport services, as well as road safety issues Limor Livnat Culture and Sport Promotion of culture and sporting Yair Lapid Finance Economic policy, public budgeting, revenue services, financial regulation Uzi Landau Tourism Tourism-related policy and program administration Sofa Landver Immigrant Absorption New immigrant processing, societal integration, immigration services for returning residents Tzipi Livni Justice Legal advice and legislation, the Office of the State Attorney, public legal defense, patents, etc. Gideon Sa`ar Internal Affairs National policy in matters of local government, physical planning, population registry, emergency services Amir Peretz Environmental Protection National environmental protection policy and local environmental legislation advisory Yaakov Perry Science and Technology Scientific and technological research and funding Shai Piron Education Public education institutions Silvan Shalom Energy and Water Resources Energy economies, national resources, scientific research Development of the Negev and the Galilee Community development Regional Cooperation Regional cooperation between Israel and its neighboring countries Yuval Steinitz Strategic Affairs Coordinating security, intelligence and diplomatic initiatives regarding strategic threats Intelligence Intelligence matters and coordination of the intelligence community Yair Shamir Agriculture and Rural Development Agricultural development, land preservation and veterinary services
Characteristics
Four characteristics define public administration in Israel, according to Asher Arian, founder of the Israel Association for Political Science. The first, referred to as the Middle Eastern style, emphasizes the tendency of bureaucratic officials to defer to authority and status, which has resulted in the government overextending its services at times and contributed to the nation's budget deficit. The second characteristic is a relic of British civil administration in Palestine from 1920 to 1948. The British style exhibits a no-nonsense approach to governance. Elements include top-down orders and strict hierarchies, which some have suggested leaves little room for compromise in negotiations. The third characteristic is a combination of liberal, entrepreneurialism that drove the founders of the state and insecurity from the experiences of the Holocaust. Finally, administrative decisions in Israel often reflect tensions between the older civil service employees, who lived through the height of Zionism, and the younger employees with university backgrounds.
Origins
Many public goods now administered by civilian ministries were historically provided by quasi-governmental organizations.Arian, Asher. “Politics in Israel: The Second Republic.” CQ Press. pp. 364-366. 2nd Edition. 2005. The largest and most influential of these groups was the Histadrut, a cohort of trade unions established as a means of furthering the Zionist movement. In the years after Israel's independence, the size and complexity of the state increased alongside the population and economy.Rivlin, Paul. “The Israeli Economy from the Foundation of the State through the 21st Century.” Cambridge University Press. 2011. Over time, the Histadrut was unable to keep pace with country's rate of growth and changing public attitudes about the competency of the Labor party. This led to reductions in state subsidies and financial insolvency for many Histadrut-backed firms. Eventually, a combination of dwindling public support and poor management made it impossible to finance and operate large-scale services.
The process of nationalization of public services has taken place in stages but is still incomplete. As more services are nationalized, the power of the central government increases. Power has thus gradually been transferred from providers controlled by political parties to the civil servants who run Israel's ministries.
Composition and leadership Government employment made up 17 percent of Israel's labor force in 2007, just above the average for developed countries. Approximately 80 percent of government employees worked at the central level in 2007. While bureaucratic inefficiencies are common in every developed state, some evidence suggests they exist to an unusual extent in Israel.Arian, Asher. Politics in Israel: The Second Republic. CQ Press. pp. 377. 2nd Edition. 2005. These inefficiencies have been attributed to the size of the state and the prominent role of government ministries in the economy and society.
Ministries are led by members of the Prime Minister's cabinet, though several ministerial positions are often held directly by the Prime Minister. The current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for example, serves as head of the Ministry for Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Most ministers are appointed by the Prime Minister, however, who typically makes selections based on the distribution of votes to political parties in the country's proportional representation electoral system an effort to form a coalition government. The cabinet's composition must also be approved by the Knesset, but this approval process is seen as a mere formality.
Public finances and administration The central government accounts for nearly 80 percent of all government revenue collected and more than 70 percent of all annual government expenditures (local, state, and federal). After government expenditures as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) peaked in the 1980s, the government pursued a "stabilization program" with the goal of shaping a "smaller government" through privatization, savings in public spending, lower tax burdens and reducing public debt. As a result, expenditures decreased to around 44 percent of GDP in 2009, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
In 2008, the Israeli government devoted a much larger share of public resources to defense and education than the average OECD country, roughly 16 percent. Total revenue expenditures as a share of GDP were roughly 30 percent lower than the average for OECD countries. The incongruity can be explained by the relatively small share of spending on social safety programs and economic programs.
Israel's expenditures on social welfare have declined in real terms in recent years as a result of privatization in public sector services that began in 2002. Not-for-profit organizations now provide roughly one-half of all public services in Israel, including about three-quarters of health services and over one-third of educational services.Ben-David, Dan. "State of the Nation in Pictures-2013." http://taubcenter.org.il/index.php/publications/special-issues/state-of-the-nation-in-pictures/lang/en/ At the same time, mandatory contributions in household contributions to public services, particularly in healthcare services, have increased concurrently.
Finance Minister Yair Lapid recently announced his intent to re-implement an annual budgeting process after 2014, rather than the biannual process used in 2009–2010 and 2011–2012 by the previous Netanyahu government. The explanation provided is that forecasting is said to be more accurate over the shorter time frame. Recent proposals to change the budget process largely stem from the failure of policy makers to reach budget deficit targets in recent years. In 2012, the budget deficit reached 4.2 percent of GDP, more than double the government's initial target of 2 percent. The government plans to reach 3 percent of GDP in part by scaling back government programs by $3.9 billion and raising more revenue.