The Return of the State

It is a well known fact that the general public in Israel is dissatisfied with the government. It is a lesser known fact that in spite of this low approval rating, the Israeli public clearly prefers to receive social and financial services—such as education and healthcare—from the State, and not from philanthropists, private businesses or civil society organizations. This is true despite the popular opinion that, in general, these organizations provide better services than the State and its agents. This tendency was true long before the social and economic services provided by the State began to receive greater public and media scrutiny following the onset of the current global economic crisis. In the following article, we will present and briefly explain the apparent paradox of the negative evaluation of the government's performance, on one hand, and the desire to see it become more active in providing social services, on the other.