On Wednesday- Friday, December 17th-19th, IDI hosted leading academics from Israel and abroad, for an international workshop on Anti-Politics: Citizens, Politics and the Political Profession.
The workshop focused on negative attitudes towards politics, political institutions, and politicians – a phenomenon that has afflicted many modern democracies. Throughout the conference, we attempted to confirm and quantify these trends, analyze their causes, and discuss the possible effect they may have on the significance and effectiveness of the representative-democracy model. Another question we discussed is the effect public sentiment has had on civil society, whom many Israelis – both groups and individuals – now turn to, as a result of their negative feelings towards the state.