Wednesday night Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu touched on the most critical threat to Israeli democracy. Following Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan’s announcement that he was cancelling Brig. Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch’s appointment as Inspector General of the police due to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein’s refusal to approve it in a timely manner, Netanyahu said, “Our appointments process is harsh, prolonged, harmful, and without a doubt worthy of review.”
The power to appoint is the power to govern. Without the power to appoint public servants, governments cannot develop patronage networks.
Although patronage has developed a bad reputation, all it really amounts to is the ability to ensure that officials appointed by a government are loyal to the government and as a result can be depended on to faithfully execute the policies of the government.
