ABSTRACT
The conditions that Israeli democracy faced in its first half century of consolidation did not augur well for success:
A lack of consensus regarding the state's basis of legitimacy
A country in which the prime minister was assassinated
A policy of granting citizenship upon arrival to co-religionists of the majority group and their immediate relatives
A population that increased tenfold in fifty years by absorbing immigrants from some 100 countries, of whom few had experience with democracy
A state with no agreed-upon or recognized international boundaries
A territory with few natural resources
An army that had successfully fought a half-dozen wars with its hostile neighbors
A once-mighty party system in a parliamentary setting, since followed by an electoral system (then repealed) featuring the direct election of the prime minister in addition to parliamentary elections
