Political appointees bolster democracy

A newly formed ministerial commission tasked with proposing changes to the Civil Service Nominations Committee could help restore sanity to Israel's democracy by ending the ban on high-level political appointments in the public sector.

Such a decision, despite making perfect sense, would surely result in fire and brimstone from Israel's self-appointed guild of pundits, whose Pavlovian response would preclude any debate based on the actual merits of the decision.

Any decent human being should hope the committee filters out this background noise as it goes about addressing the folly that was introduced by self-proclaimed anti-corruption crusaders who threw away the baby with the bath water and created, perhaps unwittingly, a grave distortion in our democratic system.

The right to make political appointments in the public service lies at the heart of any democracy worth its salt. It is common in Europe and in the United States. Thousands of Obama administration appointees will go home when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office; in France, some 50% of the public bureaucracy is replaced in the first two years of a new administration.

Allowing such appointments makes political, social and economic sense; it is also good for the public sector and for democracy and it is a crucial part of a political culture that believes everyone should participate in the political process and take part in running the country. This is what popular democracy is all about.

Bolstering popular democracy means that those from the lower rungs of society can rise to become board members in public sector companies. Disqualifying an entire group of well-qualified citizens just because they may be "politically affiliated" with a certain minister undermines a core tenet of the political system.

Appointing grass-roots activists to the public sector, rather than just lawyers and accountants, would help channel the discontent against the establishment, directing it towards partnership rather than conflict, and ultimately making democracy more stable. It would give everyone a seat at the table and a place to vent, including those who were not born with a silver spoon in their mouth or those who may not have the right connections.

So who is afraid of political appointees? The people who may lose their seats at the table, those who believe they have been anointed from birth to hold high-level positions.

The current makeup of board members in the public sector is a case in point. They are an elitist group who serve as the tool of those who wish to perpetuate the anti-democratic order. This group is the manifestation of the distortion and folly that has undermined our democratic system, a group that demands to be given the right to run the public sector, as if there are no elected officials and as if their role is just about producing a balance sheets at the end of the year. No democracy should tolerate this situation, and let's hope the new committee remedies it.

I believe the government acted with courage by forming this committee, much to the chagrin of those with a vested interest or those too ignorant to see the flaws in the current system. Let's hope this move proves successful.

Dr. Shlomo Zadok is a political scientist specializing in political sociology.