The power lies in the structure: Economic policy forum networks in Israel

This paper explores the relationships between state organizations, big business corporations, non-governmental interest groups and institutional elites in a relatively unexamined site: the Israeli political-economic system. Relationships between the numerous participants in state policy-making are examined through research on policy forums in the economic domain. Policy forums are defined as institutional settings for encounters between state and non-state organizations, through their elites; importantly, these encounters establish exchange relationships among the participants in economic policy-making processes. This article homes in on one important dimension of these relationships: the network structure of ties within and among policy forums. Interlocking data serve as indicators of the ties among the participants in policy forums. As the research presented here illustrates, the significance of policy forum networks rests not in their formal functions, but rather in their structure and with the elite persons who sit on their boards.