Abstract
The question of what explains policy changes has been of much scholarly and practical interest. Of no less interest is the question of what explains long periods of policy stalemate, especially in situations where the risks generated by prolonged inaction due to policy impasses are obvious. This chapter attempts to explain the stalemate in Israel’s water policy during the two decades between 1980 and 2000, a stalemate that persisted despite consensus on the gravity of the status quo, the inadequacy of existing policies and the risks of the continuing impasse. The chapter also tries to identify the factors that account for policy changes in the 2000s. We analyze both policy impasse and policy change using the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) theoretical frameworks developed by Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith (Policy change and learning: an advocacy coalition approach. Westview Press, Boulder, 1993).
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Notes
- 1.
World Resources Institute 1996; using WB terminology on per capita availability of fresh water: below 1,700 = stress; below 1,000 = scarcity; below 800 = crisis. Some add: below 500 = absolute scarcity. Hinrichsen, D., Robey, B., and U.D. Upadhyay, Solutions for a Water-Short World. Population Reports, Series M, No. 14. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins, Chapter 3.2, http://www.jhuccp.org/pr/m14edsum.stm
- 2.
Noga Blitz, director of consumption and licensing in the Water Commission, Protocol 5, 4: the basis of the agricultural allocation and the internal divisions among farmers and cooperative farms has not changed since 1960. Only the total quantity allocated to agriculture was reduced after the 1991 drought using 1989 as a reference year.
- 3.
Final report of the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission for investigation of water crisis, June 2002, 93.
- 4.
Opening remarks by Minister of Finance, Shochat, in the public announcement of the government’s decision on 3 August 2000.
- 5.
Amiram Cohen, “Finance Ministry reverses its opposition to desalination and water importation,” Ha’aretz, 7 June 2001 (emphasis added).
- 6.
In 1999 the Water Commissioner ordered a 40% reduction from the official 1989 quota (which is effectively less than a 40% cutback from actual use). Farmers received the instructions late and did not trust the government’s promise of compensation, so they ignored the order. In 2000, farmers reduced use of water from the national system by 50% of the 1989 quota (effectively less than 40% of the previous year’s use). In 2001, the Water Commissioner recommended a reduction of 56%, but only 50% was approved. Farmers adhered to regulations and were compensated for losses. The 1999–2000 attempt to reduce agricultural allocations failed because compensation was not implemented. Attempts to reduce urban consumption in 2000–2001 by mandating behavior (such as forbidding lawn and park watering during summer months) also failed.
- 7.
Raveh, “The government approved reform in prices to agriculture – prices will be equalized to municipalities,” Globes, 29 April 2002.
- 8.
Ministry of Environment – http://www.sviva.gov.il/bin/en.jsp?enPage=bulletin&infocus=1&en Display=view&enDispWhat=object&enDispWho=News%5El1628&enZone=february_bull04& enVersion=0&
- 9.
Avraham (Baiga) Shochat, phone interview to Gilad, May 2002.
- 10.
Substantiated by interviews with Gideon Shaffer (Interim Director of the National Security Council), Haim (Jumes) Oron (Minister of Agriculture), Mordechai (Kedmon) Cohen (Director of Planning in Agriculture Ministry), Moshe Izraeli (consultant to the Water Commission), and by copies of draft proposals provided to the author by interviewees (Gilad 2003).
- 11.
Finance Ministry spokesperson’s announcement on 16 April 2000 and 18 July 2000, Internet: http://press.info.gov.il/dover_show.asp
- 12.
In a May 2002 phone interview, former Minister of Finance Shochat emphasized that at the point of decision, it was clear to him that all the ministers were 100% supportive.
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Menahem, G., Gilad, S. (2013). Israel’s Water Policy 1980s–2000s: Advocacy Coalitions, Policy Stalemate, and Policy Change. In: Becker, N. (eds) Water Policy in Israel. Global Issues in Water Policy, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5911-4_3
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