Disqualifying political parties and "defending democracy" in Israel

The disqualification of political parties in a democratic regime has long been conceived as a paradox raising theoretical and philosophical questions. Drawing on discourse theory and narrative analysis, this article argues that the articulation of the limitation of political participation is not only a theoretical, normative or institutional question, but a discursive practice that shapes the very meaning of democracy. Taking Israel as a case study, the article explores the way a dominant narrative has constructed the limitation of political participation and has reshaped the boundaries of the regime. The narrative analysis is pursued on three series of parliamentary debates (1985, 2002 and 2008) and on one previous, landmark Supreme Court ruling (1965). The analysis demonstrates that a defensive democracy narrative inspired by the German militant democracy has imposed itself over time. This narrative has conferred to the signifier 'democracy’ a new meaning: a regime in which the guarantee of the citizens’ and nation’s survival is the ultimate objective and in which the limitation of liberty and the exclusion of specific categories of citizens are part of the democratic rules.FLWIN