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JUDAISM AND LIBERALISM: ISRAEL’S ECONOMIC PROBLEM WITH ITS HAREDIM
Author(s) -
Conway David
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
economic affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.24
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 1468-0270
pISSN - 0265-0665
DOI - 10.1111/ecaf.12232
Subject(s) - judaism , orthodoxy , liberalism , welfare state , state (computer science) , democracy , power (physics) , leverage (statistics) , law , balance (ability) , sociology , political science , religious studies , political economy , philosophy , theology , politics , medicine , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics , machine learning , computer science , physical medicine and rehabilitation
This article argues that, in the arrangements for the public provision of welfare for the poor and a basic education for all in both biblical and post‐biblical times, Judaism is more closely in accord with classical liberalism than it is with those variants of liberalism which favour no more than the minimal night‐watchman state as well as those which favour the extensive welfare states of contemporary Western social democracies. To the extent that Israel's ultra‐orthodox Jews ( its Haredim ) have been able to secure more by way of state subsidies (through exploiting the leverage their country's national system of proportional representation has given them, which often leaves them holding the balance of power), not only are they endangering Israel's viability as a vibrant, developed liberal democracy, they are also guilty of departing from the religious teachings and tradition of Jewish orthodoxy.