Participation Ideologies in Israeli Planning

The issue of public participation in the planning process can be examined from the vantage point of the general ideological antecedents of planning ideas. Unfortunately, participation studies usually avoid the issue of ideology and planners tend to be unaware of or unwilling to acknowledge the role of ideology in planning practice. Even though the importance of ideology in Israel's development is often mentioned, studies of Israeli planning seldom include ideology in their models. This is true even for studies looking in particular at participation. In this paper several orientations towards the theme of participation, set within the Israeli context, are looked at. The orientations suggested as characteristic of the Israeli pattern of development are: Ad-hocism, clientelism, populism and kibbutz democracy. The ideological origins of these orientations are traced relative to the three major political camps. Next, these orientations are compared with the theoretical positions and prospects for ideological change. The aim in this paper is to help clarify some basic conceptual issues that may help in improving the professional contact between planner and public and perhaps provide the planner with some self-awareness and sense of responsibility.