ABSTRACT
This chapter examines what sort of influence, if any, the social protest had on the party system. It argues that the protest has influenced both the economic dimension, especially its "social justice" aspect, and the collective identity dimension. The chapter demonstrates the decline of the security axis and the rise of the economic and identity axes in the 2013 elections. The 2013 elections embodied the spirit of the social protest, introducing the notion of "the new Israelis," the trademark of who is that they act in the name of public interest and clear policy. A crucial aspect of that crisis is the related decline of trust in major democratic institutions in advanced democracies and the reduced role of political parties in mediating civic interests. The impressive responsiveness of the parties to the protest, the main demand of which was to fix Israeli democracy, may have eroded the trust of the people in their representative democracy.
