A ruling party in the making: Mapai in the 1948 war

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The article discusses the transformation of Mapai, the main political party in Israel’s pre-state years, into the ruling party of a sovereign state. By way of doing so Mapai went through three distinct stages, from striving to build a working class of rural and urban labourers, to seeking immediate statehood via rapid mass immigration and partition, to acting as an effective ruling party, or the ‘party of the state’ as it called itself, following the November 1947 UN partition resolution. It was in charge of creating the machinery of government during a time of war, and this fostered hierarchical patterns characteristic of a sovereign rule, notably the independence of the government vis-à-vis the political parties, including Mapai itself.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)273-302
Number of pages30
JournalIsrael Affairs
Volume23
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 4 Mar 2017

Keywords

  • David Ben-Gurion
  • David Remez
  • Democracy
  • Eliezer Kaplan
  • Israeli Labour Movement
  • Israeli politics
  • Mapai
  • Moshe Sharett
  • Republicanism

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cultural Studies
  • History
  • Political Science and International Relations

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A ruling party in the making: Mapai in the 1948 war'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this