Elected mayors and de facto decentralisation, Israeli style

This paper advances the conjecture that the shift to a direct election of mayors in Israel, a most significant step towards recognising local authorities as political entities in their own right, has prevented further progress in the same direction. Hirschman's 'getting stuck syndrome' is used here to explore this paradox. Since a highly centralised system is not compatible with a 'strong major system', there developed an ingenious scheme - 'de fato decentralisation' - a peculiar blend of formal 'agency' relationship, informal 'partnership' and 'grey-area' autonomy. This schemes persists apparently because it is well suited to a world of ambiguous and conflicting imperatives.