Israel’s Bureaucracy Isn’t Undemocratic, It’s Inept

In his insightful and informative essay, Haviv Rettig Gur introduces the English-speaking reader to Israel’s financial bureaucracy, its history, its virtues, and its vices. I have spent many years working in this bureaucracy and observing it, and I agree with much of Gur’s analysis, but I would like to suggest that the bureaucracy is not so undemocratic, unaccountable, or indispensable as he claims. Both his glowing picture of its members’ dedication and abilities, and his claims about the extent of its power, are, it seems to me, exaggerated.

That being said, Gur’s breakdown of the Budgets Department’s problematic behavior is entirely correct. This department routinely buries funds in the reserves that were allocated by the Knesset for spending, while leaving large sums in budget items that no one needs. A related issue, which he does not mention, is the department’s reluctance to transfer unused funds from one year to the next, although the budget law clearly permits this. And so forth. Where I think Gur is wrong—and this goes to the heart of the matter—is about why this is happening.

Gur takes the misbehavior of the Budgets Department as an indication of its desire to impose its own values on the government—of unwillingness to receive orders from ministers and parliamentarians who are not professionals. But I think this reading is imprecise and even misleading.