According to these figures, during the period surveyed the institution that has done the best job of safeguarding democracy in the eyes of the public has been the Supreme Court. This is not surprising, in light of the high degree of confidence that the Supreme Court generally enjoys among the public. In 2003, 70% of respondents expressed their confidence in the institution; in 2004, 79%; in 2005, 72%; and in 2006, 68%. In 2007, despite an appreciable drop, the portion of those expressing confidence in the Supreme Court was 61%, that is, still a majority of the Israeli population.
During the past year, the media - the institution ranked second by the public in terms of safeguarding Israeli democracy - rose strongly in the rankings (from 25% in 2006 to 34% in 2007); however, there has not been a significant change in the degree of confidence inspired by the media in general, which ranged from 51% in 2004 to 44% in 2006.
The prime minister, who has continually been ranked in third place on the question of safeguarding democracy, has enjoyed relative stability in the assessment of the public: during the years in question, the findings ranged from 18% who saw the prime minister as the institution that best preserves Israeli democracy (2003) to 9% who defined him as such (2004). In the period from 2003 through 2006, the prime minister earned a medium rating in terms of public confidence, with a moderate decline over the years (53% expressed confidence in him in 2003, followed by 45% in 2004, 48% in 2005, and 43% in 2006). In 2007, the prime minister received an extremely low confidence rating of only 21%. It can be assumed that this assessment stemmed, at least in part, from the Second Lebanon War, which took place roughly half a year after Ehud Olmert took office, and in general from the lack of stability in the political system.
The institution that ranked lowest in terms of safeguarding Israeli democracy is the Knesset, Israel's parliament. As shown in figure 1, during the past five years, only 13%-14% of the public have considered the Knesset to be the institution that is best safeguarding Israeli democracy. Even more interesting is the level of confidence in Israel's parliament over the past five years. There has been a noticeable decline in the degree of confidence in this institution on the part of the public: from 52% in 2003 to 46% in 2004, 40% in 2005, and 33% in 2006 and 2007. In the past four years, there has been a steep drop in the degree of confidence in the Knesset; at present it has stabilized but at a very low level.
So what do the 2007 figures indicate? Those who define themselves as members of the lower class felt that the media is the institution doing the best job of safeguarding democracy in Israel (47%); by contrast, 23% of this group chose the Supreme Court in this category. It is interesting to note that those who do