THE POLITICAL AGENDA AND POLICY-MAKING - THE CASE OF EMIGRATION FROM ISRAEL

The article examines the process of introducing the complicated phenomenon of emigration from Israel on the Israeli political agenda, the place of this phenomenon on the agenda, its effect on public policy making in this sphere. and its being delegated from an important item to a pseudo item. Based on one of the models of Cobb and Ross - the Outside Initiative Model - an analysis is being made of the trends of development and stages of the raising of the topic of emigration on the political agenda and the strategies, procedures and frameworks that have led to its inclusion on the agenda. The article discusses whether the mere existence of the topic of emigration on the political agenda is likely to guarantee the determination of a systematic and comprehensive governmental policy and for the adoption of practical measures in this sphere. The article surveys the stresses and changes which have led to the alteration of the place of emigration from a major topic on the Israeli political agenda to a pseudo-item. An examination and analysis is being made of attitudes which have recently been arguing an explicit negation of the existence of the topic. It seems that this phenomenon is accumulating a normative momentum that finds expression in an increased understanding of the phenomenon as such, in refraining from its disapproval, and in the increase of the number of those who regard themselves as potential emigrants. There is also an increase in the Israeli communities abroad and infrastructure is being created for the absorption of additional Israelis seeking their fortune abroad. The continuing existence of this situation is likely not only to prevent a reversal of the tendency, but to keep the phenomenon of emigration permanently as a pseudo-item on the Israeli political agenda and perhaps even totally to remove it from this agenda. Although the presumptive processes and factors that have been raised might explain the alteration of the place of the phenomenon of emigration on the Israeli political agenda, it seems that they are also capable of explaining the conversion of other topics from real ones to pseudo ones.