Populism and Public Bureaucracy During a Crisis–Insights from Israel

While populism’s global surge has prompted research about its impact on modern bureaucracies, we lack an understanding of this relationship during crises. Through an inductive examination of the Israeli case study, this study offers several key findings. First, it confirms existing theoretical insights. Recently, Israeli populist forces have used politicization strategies, attacked gatekeepers, promoted centralization, and imposed budget cuts to weaken liberal forces in public administration. Second, the study demonstrates that crises accelerate populist efforts to reshape administrative institutions. While such efforts appeared to pause when the October 7 war began in 2023, it soon became clear that using this crisis, the Israeli government aimed to impose its agenda on the public bureaucracy. Third, the case highlights how populist governments exploit public uncertainty during wartime to bypass existing administrative institutions.