Summary
Lev Grinberg’s name (Grinberg 1991) for the complex ties between the Histadrut apparatus and its ruling party which prevented institutional change and the opening of Political Space to new ideas, interests, identities and actors, maintained even after the Labor Party lost the 1977 elections (Moments of Resistance, PDF p.103-104).
Details
- The complex rests on the Vicious Institutional Triangle of state, Histadrut and Mapai: Mapai needed the Histadrut to mobilize members and voters, secure jobs for supporters and supply financial and organizational resources; the party supplied committed activists, leadership cadre and coordination with the state; the state supplied the legal framework and considerable funding for the Histadrut’s quasi-state activities, and the Histadrut reciprocated by controlling the labor market and investing in economic development (PDF p.103).
- Because every Mapai member, activist and official was affiliated with the Histadrut apparatus, the party could not control the delegation of state functions to the Histadrut; the triangle thus maintained the Histadrut’s power against the state thanks to Mapai’s interest in maintaining control over the state (PDF p.103-104).
- The pre-state structure the complex preserved was finally broken up only in 1995, after 1994 reformists won the Histadrut elections and supported the 1995 national health insurance bill separating health services from Histadrut membership (PDF p.103-104, note 12).
Related pages
Moments of Resistance, Vicious Institutional Triangle, Histadrut, Mapai, Lev Grinberg, Anti-Democratic Catch