Protests, policymaking, and voting

By SARAH STONE / JERUSALEM INSTITUTE FOR POLICY RESEARCH
Voter Turnout for Parliamentary Elections in Israel's Largest Cities by Education Level, 2015 (photo credit: JERUSALEM INSTITUTE FOR POLICY RESEARCH)
Voter Turnout for Parliamentary Elections in Israel's Largest Cities by Education Level, 2015
(photo credit: JERUSALEM INSTITUTE FOR POLICY RESEARCH)
The first few days of Donald J. Trump’s presidency in the United States triggered widespread protests in American cities and across the globe – including in Israel. Though a relatively superficial measure, protest attendance could offer a soft analysis of civic engagement. It appears that the populace has been awakened, both abroad and locally, to respond to government policies.
Here in Jerusalem, residents have relatively low belief in their influence on state policies; in the Central Bureau of Statistics 2015 Social Survey in Israel, in response to the question “Can you influence the government’s policies?,” 13% of Jerusalem residents with a bachelor’s degree responded “Yes, to some extent.” This is comparable to Israel’s average; 14.4% of Israel’s residents believe they can influence the government’s policies to some extent.
There is no large variation in this metric in regard to education level; 13.6% of those in Israel who do not have high-school matriculation believe they can influence policy. Some 13.3% of those who do have matriculation; 14.4% of those with a bachelor’s degree and 15.4% of residents with a master’s degree believe they can influence policy.
Another measure of civic engagement is voter turnout. According to the survey, the average voter turnout of Israeli citizens increases together with their level of education across Israel and in Jerusalem. Of those citizens without matriculation in Israel, 78.6% said that they participated in the most recent elections (held in 2014), while 57.2% voted in Jerusalem. 84.9% of Israeli eligible voters who have matriculation but no further academic education voted in the recent elections, as did 61.7% in Jerusalem, and 90.8% of citizens with a bachelor’s degree voted in Israel at large, compared with 66.9% in Jerusalem. The trend continues for holders of master’s degrees and PhD degrees; 92.3% of eligible voters with a master’s degree voted in the recent elections across Israel at large and in Jerusalem. The total voter turnout in Israel in 2014, according to the Central Elections Committee, was 71.8 %. As is evident in the graph, the less-educated Jerusalemites had relatively lower voter turnout than their counterparts in other Israeli cities.
It is interesting to compare voter turnout to voter’s belief in their influence on state policies; even though citizens in Israel at large – and particularly in Jerusalem – do not generally believe that they have influence on policymaking, they generally do partake in the democratic process.