The Challenge of Sustaining Democracy in Deeply Divided Societies: Citizenship, Rights, and Ethnic Conflicts in India and Israel

In this book, Harel-Shalev analyzes public policy and governmental features in procedurally democratic states that govern deeply divided societies. The book traces the political formula that enables such states to survive while sustaining a democratic process in the face of religious, ethnic, and national conflicts. It investigates citizenship discourses, analyzes the mechanisms political regimes use to give rights to minorities while simultaneously limiting their power, and illustrates how this unique political formula can be applied in two case studies of vastly different countries-Israel and India. The analogous conflicts in India and Israel that threaten the survival of democracy-the ethno-religious conflict between Hindus and Muslims in India and the ethno-national conflict between Jews and Arab-Palestinians in Israel-are analyzed in depth. In addition, the core cases of India and Israel, states in which democracy has survived for over sixty years, are compared with two additional countries where democracy was short-lived.