The Israeli State and Society: Boundaries and Frontiers

6: The Social Meaning of Alternative Systems: Some Exploratory Notes

6 The Social Meaning oj'Alternative Systems: Some Exploratory Notes1 NACHMAN BEN-YEHUDA Intro,iuction A major function of every social system is to ensure that the basic needs of its members, in a few major and critical areas, are met. Many modern states-including Israel-take it upon themselves to meet such needs or control the way in which they are met. It is worth our while to make a distinction at this point between a society and a state, the latter being an additional organization (perhaps bigger md stronger) within a much larger and infinitely more complex social system. While it is not necessarily the "obligation" of the state to see that these needs are met, it nonetheless controls and regulates mechanisms de~:igned to meet these legitimate needs. The functioning of these mechanisms must be viewed by the actors who utilize them as fair, decent and regular. In this way the basic values and norms of just distribution and distributive justice (Homans, 1974) are maintained and adhered to. There are numerous areas and sy~;tems where the citizen and the state interact so that basic needs are met. For the purposes of this chapter, I shall touch-and only briefly-on four main areas, emphasizing their civilian (not military) facets: health, education, economy and law enforcement. I shall also mention two other important areas, welfare and leisure, where the contact between citizen and state may be smaller and more marginal. In this way I shall be able to illustrate my approach for both primary and marginal areas. The four main areas mentioned above are basic and critical to the ability of citizens to function. These areas are also basic to the positive subjective perception of citizens that in critically important areas they are being aided, or guided, by the normative system within whose boundaries they live. 152 ALTERNATIVE SYSTEMS Without delving into the details of and reasons for the historical dynamics , justified and important as they may be, I shall maintain that such dynamics gave rise in Israel to a situation in which alternative systems developed in each of the critically important areas. These alternative systems grew and exist to meet the legitimate needs of citizens. The alternative systems clearly compete with the regular systems offered, controlled and regulated by the state of Israel. Some of these alternative systems are viewed as legitimate and legal, some are on the margin of legitimacy and legality, and some are simply illegal. The existence of what I call alternative systems within any society has important implications for that society, particularly when viewed from the perspective of social control, which capitalizes on the complex relationships between citizen and state, between actors and society. This connection is clearly delineated from the perspective of moral boundaries. As I have indicated elsewhere (Ben-Yehuda, 1985), the concept of moral boundaries is a vital sociological concept in analyzing processes of social change and stability . Social control mechanisms, by their nature, are aimed at detecting deviance and preserving stability. Change or erosion in the activities of control mechanisms may well be taken as a sociological indication of possible changes in moral boundaries, hence, as an indication of changes in the very nature of the collective's self-definition. Thus, the existence and success of various alternative systems in Israel may be interpreted to mean that some profound processes of change are taking place in this societychanges that are focused around, and aimed at, the very essence of this society : the definition of its own moral boundaries. After documenting and illustrating in an exploratory fashion the nature of some alternative systems, I shall interpret the existence of these systems in Israel from the perspective of social control in general, and from Hirschi's more specific control theory in particular. The reader must be reminded that the nature of this inquiry is that of an exploratory investigation only, indicating and analyzing general trends. Some Alternative Systems For obvious reasons, reliable and systematic research about alternative systems in Israel hardly exists, and the data was collected from scarce and sporadic resources. Medicine The majority (probably between 75 and 85 percent)l of Israel's citizens receive coverage for their medical needs through Kupat Cho/im, the health 153 NACHMAN BEN-YEHUDA fund of the Histadrut (the Israeli tr;lde union federation). This insurance is based on the concept of members paying a moderate monthly fee, generally determined...