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A government of clerks By Zeev Sternhell Tags: democracy, bureaucracy  One of the telltale signs that a democratic state is in the initial stages of disintegration comes when the elected political elites forsake their authority in favor of the bureaucracy. Not only in the Second Lebanon War did the political leadership pass strategic authority on to senior military officials. Even during the early phase of the current financial crisis, the senior politicians relinquished their authority to make decisions, passing the buck to a group of bureaucrats. In every Western country, those at the top of government have been called on to make quick decisions. In Israel, more than two months were needed for the politicians to return to their senses and dare present themselves to their technocrats. It is doubtful whether ordinary citizens in the United States and Europe know the names and faces of the people responsible for overseeing ministerial budgets or accountants general as if they were regular visitors to their homes. There the technocrat's job is to advise and implement, while shaping and marketing policy is the right and obligation of whomever was elected to do so. Due to Israel's chronic governmental vacuum, weeks have passed since the snowball began rolling and the finance minister began to respond, slowly, to what was unfolding. During this time, only technocrats' voices have been heard, or banking chiefs and other interested parties who in the future will probably include current treasury officials. All in the family. Leadership is gauged during periods of crisis, and the last two crises did not leave the politicians in a flattering light. Indeed, once the bureaucrats understood that the politicians did not measure up to the demands of their jobs, the bureaucrats took their place. Here is a terrific example, which the public is apparently unaware of, as reported by Akiva Eldar in this newspaper on November 13. The High Court of Justice is currently deliberating a petition by the attorney general against a military appellate committee over the latter's encouragement of settlers to take control of private Palestinian land. For this purpose, the military authorities are permitting the settlers to exploit an Ottoman statute dating back to the middle of the 19th century, one stating that a tract of land taken from an owner who has not returned to reclaim it within 10 years is transferred to the party holding the land. Advertisement It is difficult to fathom, but this indeed is the reality: To force the army to uphold Israeli and international law and abide by basic norms of justice and integrity, the state prosecutor's office must appeal to the court because the military bureaucracy spurns the government it is meant to serve. The same applies to the financial crisis. The bureaucrats, who were elected by no one, demand the authority to determine the fate of assets that hundreds of thousands of working people have accumulated their entire lives. They operate as a fully-fledged pressure group and use every public forum to censure those who disagree with them, including the prime minister, cabinet members and the Knesset Finance Committee. The champions of capitalism also do not hesitate to portray themselves as the defenders of the exploited. Nehemia Shtrasler, for example, is sympathetic to the plights of Mrs. Cohen of Hadera and Mrs. Levy of Gedera who have no provident funds and will have to subsidize with their own taxes the safety net for employees of the ports and the Israel Electric Corporation ("After me the flood," December 12). Is it only for these folks, whose hatred of the trade unions permanently haunts them? And what about the teachers, nurses and doctors, welfare workers, university professors, truck and bus drivers, state workers, police officers, army officers, and basically all wage earners in the public and private sector whose money is supposed to be protected until they reach old age or during emergency in a provident or study fund? I have some advice on this matter. If the salaries of Mrs. Levy and Cohen are indeed so meager and their social rights have been usurped by free-market policies, perhaps it is possible to shift policies and exempt them from paying income tax while levying a 75 percent tax on all salary that enters the accounts of Mrs. Galia Maor of Bank Leumi and Mrs. Ofra Strauss, the food magnate, on condition that each sum exceeds the prime minister's monthly salary. Those who subscribe to the view that the citizens' raison d'etre is to set in motion the wheels of the free market by injecting their savings into the stock market - without anyone asking or offering alternatives - are now carping over campaign demagoguery. Indeed, there are and will be many a blind eye turned, and the election season offers good timing. It is the only chance the people have to force the authorities to do something for their sake. This is why democracy exists. People choose representatives to act on their behalf, not so they can erode the value of the little property an average wage earner accumulates throughout his active life. The state is nothing if not an instrument to be utilized by society, and society is a hodgepodge of individuals seeking to safeguard their own welfare. It would behoove those in the treasury to internalize this simple truism. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Violence on film Two settlers filmed shooting at Palestinians turn themselves in to police. Warning to Iran Bush: United States will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.

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