12016 Democracy and National Security 1
Credits: 3 graduate credits in Democracy Studies / Society and Politics
Prerequisites: Democracy: An Interdisciplinary Approach, Israeli Democracy: Selected Issues, Contemporary Democratic Theories; one of the following: Democracy and Democratization, Selected Problems in the History of Western Democracies, Education Policy: Education for Democracy in Democratic Societies, Democracy and Mass Communication,2 Selected Topics in Public Administration; and exemption from bibliographic assignments on computer searches in the “Alef” catalog and databases.
The course is based on two readers edited by Benyamin Neuberger, Ilan Ben-Ami and Ariela Gross-Rophe; and on a collection of primary sources including Supreme Court rulings, laws, regulations and agreements.
The course discusses the problematic relationship between security and democracy. It focuses on Israel, which has experienced crisis situations and wars for decades, but also relates to other democratic countries. The following questions are addressed: Can democracy be maintained in a state of war or is a country at war doomed to be a military state? To what extent does the prominence of security issues impair democratic norms and processes? Is emergency legislation compatible with democratic principles? Additional issues discussed include the issue of civil control of the army; freedom of speech and the public’s right to know in times of siege and war; freedom of conscience and obeying the law; human rights in times of war and of combating terrorism; international law and human rights; security policy and the ambiguous nuclear policy.
Topics: Democracy and security around the world; The army and democracy; Security and the rule of law; Obeying the law and freedom of conscience; Censorship and freedom of speech; The Arab minority; The territories and Israeli democracy; Making policy for peace, security and war; Western democracies and the war on terror; The ambiguous nuclear policy.
1Students who took National Security and Democracy in Israel (10509) as part of their undergraduate studies may not take this course.
Students may write a seminar paper in this course, although it is not required.
2or Liberalism: Texts, Contexts, Critiques (12005), for students who took it as a required course in the Culture specialization before Spring 2010.