2014 Israeli Democracy Index

About the 2014 Index

The 2014 Israeli Democracy Index is the twelfth in a series of reports published since 2003 that examine the institutional, procedural, and perceptual aspects of Israeli democracy on a regular basis. The purpose of this report is to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date portrait, and at the same time to identify trends of change and elements of stability in Israeli public opinion in the political and socioeconomic spheres.

This year’s survey (which forms the basis of the Democracy Index) focused on social and economic concerns, which are also the subject of the first chapter. In the second chapter, we address various aspects of Israel’s political and government systems. The third chapter deals with Israeli society, while the fourth chapter examines Israel's ranking in international democracy indicators.

It is important to note that the survey was conducted in the spring of 2014, prior to Operation Protective Edge, which took place in Gaza during the summer. Given everything that happened in Israel during that turbulent period, some of the data may seem questionable from a post-war perspective. But the findings are accurate reflections of the time and may well hold true in future when the dust settles from the Operation.

Readers should bear in mind, moreover, that the survey on which the Index is based measures the feelings, opinions, and judgments of the general public, meaning that this is not an “objective” or professional assessment of Israel’s situation.

It is our hope that the wealth of data presented will help readers gain a better understanding of the map of public opinion in Israel on issues related, directly or indirectly, to Israel’s democratic character, and will assist scholars in their writing and research. For this reason, the raw data used in the Index will also be available to the public (in SPSS) on the Israeli Democracy Index page on this website.