Social welfare policy in Israel: Developments in the 1980s and 1990s

Two major but sometimes contradicting trends have dominated Israeli policies since the 1980s. The dominant trend, motivated partly by economic & partly by ideological considerations, reflects the retrenchment & marginalization policies. Retrenchment, in the sense of budgetary cutbacks of social welfare expenditure & programmatic changes in social provisions. Marginalization reflects the attempts of returning social welfare issues to the periphery of the political arena & transforms them into issues of private & individual concern. The secondary trend, leading in an opposite direction, indicates some wielding of governmental responsibilities in specific areas of social provision, whether a response to urgent needs, or to pressures of public opinion. Expansion of governmental responsibilities can be found in the area of health care, children's allowances, pensions for housewives, disabled children, & others. These trends are a departure from the social-democratic, European model of social protection policies to which Israel adhered for many years. In the last two decades, Israel's tendency has been to move toward the conservative American model of social welfare protection & leaves citizens largely to become dependent on market forces. The main theme of the article is to examine these trends in the field of social security & the personal social services, & to analyze the effect of policy changes on the well-being of weaker population groups & on Israeli society as a whole. Adapted from the source document.