Old debate, new evidence - Class mobility trends in Israeli society, 1974-1991

This paper engages in the ongoing debate concerning the consequences of the industrialization process for social mobility. At the heart of this debate is the 'liberal thesis' which states that the industrialization process br ings about not only more opportunity for social mobility, but also more equ ality of opportunity. This paper examines changes over time in social mobil ity in Israel. It also looks at Israel's mobility regime in a comparative p erspective, and at the relationship between immigration and social mobility . Israeli society makes a good case study for the following reasons: Israel i society is a new society; Israeli society has experienced rapid economic and demographic changes; Recently collected data of high quality make it po ssible to follow the emergence of Israeli society and changes within it, an d to relate them to social mobility. The sources of data in this study are the 1974 mobility survey (Matras and Weintraub, 1977), and the 1991 mobilit y survey in Israel (Kraus and Toren, 1992). To achieve comparability betwee n the two datasets this paper uses the methodology adopted by the CASMIN (C omparative Analysis of Social Mobility in Industrial Nations) project to st udy intergenerational class mobility of Israeli men aged 25-64. It is found that social mobility in Israel is at a high level in a comparative perspec tive. At the same time, Israel's mobility regime is basically similar to ot her industrial nations' mobility regimes, and over time, Israel's mobility regime has changed very little. Any distinct mobility pattern in Israel (or change over time in this pattern) is explained by historical processes, sp ecific institutional arrangements, and state interventions in the economy ( particularly in the agricultural sector). Industrialization and social mobi lity are not found to be closely related in Israel, nor can we say that Isr ael's high level of fluidity is caused by immigration.