ABSTRACT
Politics in Israel is hierarchical, highly centralized, and concentrates great power and resources in the hands of relatively few top national leaders. From the early thirties, when the labor movement captured the key positions in the Zionist executive and other important political positions in the pre-state Yishuv, the top leadership of the labor parties consolidated and entrenched their positions primarily through control of external resources upon which the state-in-the-making was dependent for its survival and development. The authority of this political elite was largely legitimized through the consensual acceptance of their pioneering role in leading the fulfillment of the Zionist dream. With the institutionalization of the political structure and the transfer of many of the major functions to the state in the post-Independence period, the elite further consolidated their positions through control of the expanded position of the state machinery. Again, control over the direction and allocation of resources, capital and human, which flowed into the country from abroad was a major factor in perpetuating the centralization of power. As a result of the consolidation of resources and power at the center, local politics and government in Israel has traditionally played a secondary and dependent role vis-à-vis the central parties and government. This had been particularly true in the case of the thirty new towns established since 1948 and primarily populated by new immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East who were sent to the towns from transit camps or straight from the boats. These were planted communities, created and controlled by agencies of the central government ministries for their development; and, because initially the local inhabitants lacked the necessary skills to communicate their demands to higher authorities, these towns were remote controlled by agents of national agencies, ministries, and political parties.
