Avishai Benish

Avishai Benish is professor of Law at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research stands at the intersection of law, regulation and social policy, combining legal and social science theories and methodologies. A central focus of his work is the conceptualization of the “regulatory welfare state” and the effect of marketization and privatization of social services on the concept of social citizenship. Another area of focus is the social rights and the ways to understand and prevail over the non-take-up of these rights by disadvantaged groups and individuals. Within the larger professional community, he has served as the chairman of ESPAnet Israel, the Israeli national association of the European Network for Social Policy Analysis (ESPAnet).

The project

Title: Hybridity and Governance in the Regulatory Welfare State

"This project pertains to the impact of privatization and marketization on welfare state services, specifically under the “Regulatory Welfare State” (RWS). In my previous work (including with my college Prof. Jerome Pélisse from Science Po), I have introduced the concept of the RWS and emphasized the significant impact of the new regulatory state on the institutional hybridization of the welfare sector. The new regulatory state continually redefines the boundaries between the public and private sector, welfare and non-welfare institutions, and social and civil norms, leading to the institutional hybridization of the welfare sector. That is due to change in administrative values (from equality and fairness to efficiency), change in policy values (from income security to labor market participation), change in the role of the state (from provider to regulator) and change in steering and control mechanisms (from rules to performance). While hybrid institutions were always common elements in the welfare state, the range of hybridization has widened considerably over the years, increasing the tensions between the logics of state, market and civil society in welfare governance."

Hosting institution: Sciences Po / AxPo Observatory of Market Society Polarization

Selective Bibliography

• Benish, A. & Pélisse, J. (2022) “Administrative justice in the private sector,” in: Tomlinson, J., Thomas, R., Hertogh, M. & Kirkham, R. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of administrative justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Benish, A. & Levi-Faur, D. (2020) “The expansion of regulation in welfare governance” The ANNALS of the American academy of political and social science, 691(1), 17-29.
• Benish, A. & Mattei, P. (2020) “Accountability and hybridity in welfare governance” Public administration, 98(2) 281 – 290.
• Benish, A., Tarshish, N., Holler, R., & Gal, J. (2023). Types of administrative burden reduction strategies: who, what, and how. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory