Israel’s Innovative Young Adults Lists

Abstract

Scholars have pointed to the alarming decline in the participation of young people in the institutional political activities underlying representative democracy, such as voting, joining political parties, or running for office. Solutions previously proposed have dealt with participatory democracy rather than representative democracy. Based on in-depth interviews, this article shows that, since 1998, the involvement of Young Adults Lists (YALs) in Israel’s local elections have successfully and consistently engaged young adults as a descriptive constituency in local representative democracy. The YALs’ extraordinary electoral success derives from their ability to construct and carry out an innovative campaign strategy tailored to the preferences of young adults. This strategy has compensated for the YALs’ minimal financial resources and their lack of political experience and significant ties to national parties or similar organizations.