ABSTRACT
It has been my purpose through this unconventional study of the Israel Labor Party to provide explanations for important aspects of the party and Israeli society in general, and to indicate some of the wider implications and possible applications of such an approach. Students of politics have long been interested in the structural forms that varieties of political behavior take on and in the dynamics of such processes as the competition for power and leadership; the recruitment, mobility, and succession of leadership; the modes of conflict resolution; the making of decisions; and the role of ideology. Political anthropology places particular emphasis on the cultural context in the analysis of these phenomena. I shall briefly review some of the major findings of this study and, by comparing them with the findings of an important study of Mapai using a different approach, shall attempt to suggest the special contribution of the anthropological approach and some of its wider applications for the study of contemporary society.
