Democracy and Dissent : The case of an Israeli peace movement, Peace Now

Sammanfattning: The dissertation discuss, through the case-study of the Israeli peace movement 'Peace Now', the issue of dissent in a democratic context.The tension between the will of the collectivity or nation, as interpreted by a representative government, and the right of the individual conscience to take precedent over that collective will is, together with the discussion about the mechanisms that trigger and allow that dissent to function as exemplified by 'Peace Now', at the core of this study.The emphasis in the study is on the structural outcomes of the process created by the above-mentioned dilemmas; I.e the creation of a dissenting and protesting peace movement. Emphasis is also put on a peace movement acting in a democratic country, involved in war/conflict. It is suggested that the role of this movement and the impact it have on society increase in such extreme situations when more strain is put on society.It is argued that these dilemmas, and the way they are handled in the Israeli context studied here, have their origin in a specific Jewish political culture and political philosophy as it has developed in modern-day Israel, but based on a political culture much older, where dissent is an integral and accepted part of society.