The communitarian attitudes of religious Zionist female adolescents to democracy in Israel

Abstract

The aim of this qualitative research is to investigate how religious Zionist female adolescents (N = 40) construct and deconstruct their perceptions of democracy within the ‘postsecular’ Israeli society as a result of their intensive, religious Zionist education and socialization process promoted by Israeli schools which subscribe to this ideology within the Israeli state religious education system. This study found that female graduates from the national religious schools were influenced by political theology which was promoted through their schools’ education and socialization processes. The findings highlighted the graduates’ belief in the Jacobin communitarian approach to democracy; their focus on Liebman’s concept of expansionism; and the challenges these approaches pose for maximal civic education in Israel.