iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Ronen Mandelkern

JEPP Journal @jeppjournal.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

🧱 🏃♂️ An additional hurdle to overcome neoliberalism (next to ideas and intersts): de-polititization 🔎 @mandelkern.bsky.social compares challenges to neoliberalism in Sweden (2014-2018) and Israel (2011-2019) 🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Hi — do any experts or observers of Labour back-bench groups know if there’s a publicly available list of MPs who are members of the Red Wall Caucus (led by Jo White) within the Labour Party? Many thanks!

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

**12/13** Across these four works, our central message is clear: understanding social policy requires taking ideas seriously — as causal, contestable, and teachable forces that shape how welfare states evolve and how we study them.

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

**11/13** We describe teaching strategies for both undergraduate and graduate levels: using real-world policy examples, documentary films, and discussion exercises to show how ideas shape social-policy debates and policy design.

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

**10/13** Finally: *Teaching about the Role of Ideas in Social Policy* (in the @elgarpublishing.bsky.social book *Teaching Social Policy*) doi.org/10.4337/9781... This chapter explores how to make ideational analysis accessible to students — turning abstract theory into concrete, teachable practice.

doi.org

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

**9/13** — from the endurance of neoliberalism to the emergence of the social investment paradigm — within broader methodological and theoretical innovations, such as discursive and constructivist institutionalism. It highlights how ideas interact with power, expertise, and institutional contexts.

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

**8/13** We emphasize that explaining welfare reform requires distinguishing between how ideas *construct*, *guide*, and *legitimize* reform efforts — and tracing how different actors deploy them at various stages of policy change. The chapter also situates recent debates >>

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

**7/13** Third: *“Ideas and Welfare State Reform”* (in the Handbook on Welfare State Reform) doi.org/10.4337/9781... We trace the “ideational turn” in welfare-state research — showing how paradigms, discourses, and actors have shaped reform from neoliberal restructuring to social investment.

doi.org

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

**6/13** We highlight three transformations: • The rise of the **social-investment paradigm** • The **financialization** of welfare provision • The **technocratization** of policymaking Together, they show how ideas redefine where markets end and welfare begins.

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

**5/13** Next: our review essay *“Ideas and the Changing Relationship between States and Markets in Social Policy”* in the International Journal of Social Welfare doi.org/10.1111/ijsw... We examine how ideational scholarship explains shifting boundaries between state and market in welfare provision.

doi.org

Ideas and the changing relationship between states and markets in social policy: A review essay

This review essay takes stock of the recent literature about the role of ideas in social policy, with a particular focus on a key issue in social policy research: the changing interactions between st....

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

**4/13** We also outline methodological approaches for studying ideas — process tracing, discourse analysis, network mapping, and text analysis — showing that ideational inquiry can be empirically rigorous and indispensable for explaining social policy change.

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

**3/13** We argue that ideas influence policy through three mechanisms: *Construction* – shaping how actors define preferences and problems *Instruction* – guiding how preferences translate into policies *Legitimation* – framing and justifying policy choices

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

**2/13** First: *“Ideas as Explanations in Social Policy Analysis”* (in the @elgarpublishing.bsky.social *Handbook on the Political Economy of Social Policy*). doi.org/10.4337/9781... We ask: how can ideas be treated as causal factors explaining policy stability and change?

doi.org

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

**1/13** Over the past two years, @danielbeland.bsky.social and I have published four pieces exploring how ideas shape social policy — from conceptual foundations to reform and pedagogy. This thread walks through them:

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

16/ We got lots of excellent feedback along the way, and we are especially thankful to @danielbeland.bsky.social @yoniabramson.bsky.social Julie Cooper, Hanna Lerner, Jonathan Rynhold & Yossi Shain, and to the editors and anonymous reviewers of @poppublicsphere.bsky.social

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

15/ For diaspora politics, the study reveals a new kind of influence: Diaspora actors can be ideological entrepreneurs, not just donors - taking part in remaking their homeland’s ideas through shared identity and resources.

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

14/ For Israel, this explains how American conservatism reshaped right-wing ideology - without replacing its ethno-nationalist foundation.

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

13/ Key takeaway: Diaspora–Local Cooperation (DLC) allows ideational imports across multiple domains - but only when these ideas align with local actors’ needs and core beliefs do they generate a comprehensive ideological transformation.

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

12/ But ideological change varied across domains: ✅ Deep in government & law (high fit with the Right’s interests). ⚙️ Moderate in economy. 👪 Limited in morality (less political utility, internal divisions).

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

11/ On social issues, American “family values” language—once absent in Israeli discourse—entered mainstream politics, shaping debates on feminism, LGBT rights, and Israel’s refusal to sign the Istanbul Convention.

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

10/ Economically, neoliberal ideas were reconciled with and justified through Jewish tradition - casting self-reliance and limited government as biblical virtues.

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

9/ This shift was most visible in the judicial overhaul: Ideas first articulated in Kohelet’s papers - curbing judicial review, limiting legal advisors’ authority - became core government policy.

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

8/ The outcome? A genuine ideological shift within Israel’s Right. Yet this shift was not a rupture but a reconfiguration. The Israeli Right retained its core tenets - ethno-nationalism and territorial maximalism—while integrating new conservative ideas into its broader ideological framework.

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

7/ This diaspora–local network translated, localized, and promoted American conservative ideas: 📘 Translated Scalia, Sowell, and Friedman. ⚖️ Advocated “judicial restraint.” 🏫 Promoted “school choice.” 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Imported “family values” discourse.

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

6/ Empirically, we trace how Jewish-American conservatives and Israeli right-wing actors cooperated to build new institutions like Kohelet Policy Forum and the Tikvah Fund that became hubs of conservative thought in Israel.

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

5/ In practice, diaspora actors supply resources + ideas,Local actors adapt (“localize”) them to domestic politics and discourse so it will resonate with the public → Together they build organizations that promote these ideas.

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

4/ This kinship turns DLC into a unique channel of ideational importation. It allows the transfer of ideas across multiple domains - in our case, governmental, economic, and social moralities - which cumulate into an ideological shift, not just isolated policy transfer.

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

3/ We propose a new mechanism to explain it: Diaspora–Local Cooperation (DLC): Collaboration between diaspora and homeland actors who share both values and a sense of belonging to the same nation.

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

2/ Existing theories of ideational importation - via states, experts, or transnational networks - can’t explain this. The U.S. didn’t promote it; Israeli experts opposed it; and no global conservative think-tank network was at play.

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

1/ American-style conservatism - free markets, family values, judicial restraint - was historically foreign to Israel’s Right, which focused on ethnonationalism and territorial maximalism. Yet recently, the Israeli Right started embracing these ideas. Why?

Menachem Begin, leader of Herut and then Likud, behind the map of the historical 'Greater Israel'

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

What links the recent Israeli government attacks against its Attorney General and the new Leadership Institute Israeli branch? Or Asher and I answer that in a new paper in @PoPpublicsphere on the ideological shift of Israel's Right- a 🧵: doi.org/10.1017/S153...

doi.org

Diaspora–Local Cooperation as a Driver of Ideological Change: The Ascendance of American Conservatism in Israel | Perspectives on Politics | Cambridge Core

Diaspora–Local Cooperation as a Driver of Ideological Change: The Ascendance of American Conservatism in Israel

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

16/ We got lots of excellent feedback along the way, and we are especially thankful to @danielbeland.bsky.social @yoniabramson.bsky.social as well as Julie Cooper, Hanna Lerner, Jonathan Rynhold & Yossi Shain, and to the editors and anonymous reviewers of @poppublicsphere.bsky.social

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

14/ For Israel, this explains how American conservatism reshaped right-wing ideology - without replacing its ethno-nationalist foundation.

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

13/ Key takeaway: Diaspora-Local Cooperation (DLC) allows ideational imports across multiple domains - but only when these ideas align with local actors’ needs and core beliefs do they generate a comprehensive ideological transformation.

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

11/ On social issues, American “family values” language - once absent in Israeli discourse - entered mainstream politics, shaping debates on feminism, LGBT rights, and Israel’s refusal to sign the Istanbul Convention.

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Reposted by Ronen Mandelkern

Perspectives on Politics @poppublicsphere.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

NOW OUT ON FIRSTVIEW!! #Diaspora–Local #Cooperation as a Driver of #Ideological #Change: The #Ascendance of #American #Conservatism in #Israel By Or Asher & @mandelkern.bsky.social doi.org/10.1017/S153...

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Reposted by Ronen Mandelkern

Philipp Heimberger @heimbergecon.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

In a new paper, we provide fresh evidence on the macroeconomic effects of public investment in 27 EU member states. We find that public investment has favorable effects on output and unemployment; doesn't crowd out private investment; and doesn't jeopardise debt sustainability.

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Reposted by Ronen Mandelkern

Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Today, five Palestinians died in Gaza after being starved to death by Israel. via @nirhasson.bsky.social

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Reposted by Ronen Mandelkern

Reut Marciano @reutmar.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

1/5Happy to share this from @psjeditor.bsky.social, w Shir Gal (TAU). We study the conditions under which business corporations expand their institutional power. We find that *how* the state purchases (its acquisition regime) shapes corporations' instit' power onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

<em>Policy Studies Journal</em> | PSO Public Policy Journal | Wiley Online Library

What are the conditions under which business corporations expand their institutional power? This paper argues that institutional power is affected by the architecture of the “acquisition regime”—the ....

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Reposted by Ronen Mandelkern

Benjamin Braun @benbraun.social · 01/07/2025

🚨New article🚨 The consensus is that contestation pushed central banks to talk 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 about inequality & climate. Our theory: At first, CBs seek to ward off politicization by talking 𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 about controversial topics. We tested this 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐡𝐲𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐬.🧵 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Screenshot of the title page of linked article:
"Noisy Politics, Quiet Technocrats: Strategic Silence by Central Banks"
By Benjamin Braun and Maximilian Düsterhöft

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Ronen Mandelkern @mandelkern.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

I have joined hundreds of other Israeli academics in calling on our academic system to take immediate action against the war in Gaza—for the sake of the lives that can still be saved and for our future here. Full letter (English follows Hebrew & Arabic): docs.google.com/document/d/1...

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Reposted by Ronen Mandelkern

Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

This was the moment, just over a month ago, when the ADL could've put an end to Republicans doing Nazi salutes. They didn't. They chose instead to provide cover by calling it "an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm." Now the sieg heil salute has been normalized. The ADL literally had ONE JOB.

ADL on X: This is a delicate moment. It’s a new day and yet so many are on edge. Our politics are inflamed, and social media only adds to the anxiety.

It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge.

In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath. This is a new beginning. Let’s hope for healing and work toward unity in the months and years ahead.

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