Dr. Maoz Rosenthal

Dr. Maoz Rosenthal

Senior Lecturer at the Department of Politics and Communications

Dr. Maoz Rosenthal is a Senior Lecturer and appointed head of the Politics and Communications Department at Jerusalem Academic College (previously Hadassah Academic College), bringing expertise in comparative politics and judicial politics studies. He earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from Tel Aviv University in 2007 and has held academic appointments at Yale University, Binghamton University (SUNY), Reichman University (IDC Herzliya), and the Open University of Israel.
Dr. Rosenthal's research focuses on the strategic dimensions of political systems, particularly executive politics in parliamentary democracies, judicial review and court behavior, ethnic voting patterns, and policy instability. His scholarship includes the book "Israel's Governability Crisis: Quandaries, Unstructured Institutions, and Adaptation" (Lexington Books, 2017), alongside peer-reviewed articles in leading journals such as Political Studies, Political Research Quarterly, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Political Studies Review, British Politics, and Journal of Law and Courts.
His research combines quantitative analysis with comparative institutional theory, examining coalition formation, prime ministerial power-sharing arrangements, the interaction between descriptive and substantive representation, and the judicialization of politics. 

Books
Israel’s Governability Crisis: Quandaries, Unstructured Institutions and Adaptation. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, Lexington Books, November 2016. (ISBN 978-1-4985-1341-8) [Reviewed in Israel Studies Review 2018 33(3): 163-166]

Journal Articles 
1.        "Courts and Horizontal Accountability in Hybrid Regimes: Judicial Review and the Quality of Democracy". (with Assaf Meydani). Political Research Quarterly. Forthcoming. SJR Index Q1
2.        "Sharing Prime Ministerial Power in Hung Parliamentary Systems: Deputy, Rotating and Alternating Prime Ministers". Political Studies Review, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299251347083 SJR Index Q1
3.        "The agenda premises of the judicialization of politics: policy attention in Israel’s high court of justice". (with Assaf Meydani). Front. Polit. Sci., 29 January 2025, Sec. Peace and Democracy, Volume 7 - 2025 
 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2025.1533270 SJR Index Q1
4.        "Reevaluating the Policy Success of Private Members Bills". (with Amnon Cavari and Ilana Shpaizman). Research & Politics, 10(2).
 https://doi.org/10.1177/20531680231181750   SJR Index Q1
5.        "Estimating the "Legislators in Robes": Measuring a Constitutional Court's Judges' Political Preferences". (with Shai Talmor) Justice Systems Journal, 2022, 43(3): 373-390. SJR Index Q1
6.        "Introducing a new Dataset: The Israeli Political Agendas Project". (with Amnon Cavari and Ilana Shpaizman). Israel Studies Review, 2022, 37(1): 1-30. SJR Index Q3
7.        "Stability, Diversity and Ideology in Media Attention Concerning Public Policy Topics During the 2019-2020 Elections Cycle". (With Gilad Greenwald). Misgraot Media, 2021, 20: 8-33 [Hebrew: a VATAT recognized journal]. 
8.        "Judicial Review in a Defective Democracy: Judicial Nominations and Judicial Review in Constitutional Courts". (With Gad Barzilai and Assaf Meydani). Journal of Law and Courts, 2021, 9(1): 137-157. SJR Index Q1
9.        Strategic agenda setting and Prime Ministers’ approval ratings: the heresthetic and rhetoric of political survival. British Politics, 2021, 16(4): 355-374. SJR Index Q1 
10.        “When does Descriptive Representation become Substantive? Systemic Luck, Social Power and Resources’ Allocation.” Ethnicities, 2019, 19(6): 1015-1037. SJR Index Q1
11.        "Committee Chairpersons’ Policy Agenda Control in Fragmented Multiparty Parliaments: Theory and Evidence from the Israeli Knesset." Israel Studies Review, 2018, 33(1): 66-80. SJR Index Q3
12.        "Voting Locally Abstaining Nationally: Descriptive Representation, Substantive Representation and Minority Voters’ Turnout." (With Dave Nachmias and Hani Zubida) Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2017, 41(9): 1632-1650. SJR Index Q1 
13.        "Israeli National Party Strategies in Local Elections: Local Support, Party Valence, and Peripherality." (With Dave Nachmias and Hani Zubida) Israel Affairs, 2016, 22(2): 401−422. SJR Index Q3 
14.        "Policy Instability in a Comparative Perspective: The Context of Heresthetic." Political Studies, 2014, 62(1):172-196. SJR Index Q1 
15.        "The Determinants of Budgetary Implementation: A Policy Analysis of the Israeli Case." (With Adam Wolfson) Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, 2013, 15(5):432-451. SJR Index Q1 
16.        "Inverted First and Second-Order Elections: The Effects of Political Alienation on Electoral Turnout in Israel." (with Dave Nachmias and Hani Zubida), Israel Studies Review, 2012, 27 (1): 31−54. SJR Index Q3
17.        "Agenda Control in an Unstable Parliamentary Democracy: Evidence from the Israeli Public Sector." Constitutional Political Economy, 2012, 23 (1): 22−44. SJR Index Q2 
18.        "Israel’s 1993 Decision to Make Peace with the PLO: Or How Political Losers (this time) Became Winners." (With Gideon Doron) International Negotiation, 2009, 14(3):449−474. SJR Index Q2 
19.        "Trapped in Strategy: Israeli Radical Right-Wing Parties and the Peace Process." (With Gideon Doron) Issues in Israeli Society, 2008, 6: 44 − 67 [Hebrew: a VATAT recognized journal] 
20.        "Stability and Rationality in Politics: Political Survival and Fairness. " Politika, 2006, 49 − 70. [Hebrew: a VATAT recognized journal]
21.        "Rational Choice Theory: State of the Discipline." (With Gideon Doron) Politika, 2006, 9 − 24). [Hebrew: a VATAT recognized journal]
22.        "Al-Qaeda as a Dune Organization: Toward a Typology of Islamic Terrorist Organizations." (With Shaul Mishal) Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 2005, 28(4),275−293. SJR Index Q1 
Chapters in Edited Books (all peer reviewed)
1.        "A Court of Law or a Court of Judges: The Judicialization of Politics between Collective Action and Personalization of Legal-Political Doctrines" (with Shai Talmor). In: Robert M. Howard, Kirk A. Randazzo and Rebecca A. Reid (eds.), Research Handbook on Law and Political Systems. Elgar Press, 2023. 
2.        "Israel: democratic stability and governmental instability. The role of the electoral system". In: Francesco Cavatorta and Valeria Resta (eds.). Handbook – Elections in The Middle East and North Africa. Routledge Press, 2023.
3.        "On Ethnic Demons and Class Specters: Ethnic and Class Voting in the 2019-2020 Elections in Israel" (With Gal Levi and Ishak Saporta). In: Gideon Rahat and Michal Shamir (eds.). The Elections in Israel 2019-2020. Jerusalem: Israel Democracy Institute Press (Hebrew) and Routledge Press (English), July 2022.
4.        "Intra-Domestic Bargaining over the Lands and the Future: Israel’s Policy towards the 1967 Occupied Territories" (with Gideon Doron). In: Daniel Bartal and Izhak Schnell (eds.). 40 Years to Israeli Occupation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. 
5.        "A Critical Decision: Ben-Gurion and the Israeli Non-Constitution", (With Gideon Doron) In: Moshe Lissak and Devora Hacohen (eds.) Critical Decisions in Israel, Beer-Sheva: Ben-Gurion University Press, 2010. (Hebrew) 
6.        "Two-Way Barriers: The ’Occupied Territories’ and Israel’s Domestic Politics", (With Gideon Doron). In: Ephraim Lavi (ed.). 40 Years of Occupation: Influences on the State of Israel. Tel-aviv: The Tami Steinmentz Center for peace Studies, 2009. (Hebrew) 

Professor Assaf Meydani, Tel-Aviv Yafo Academic College; Professor Amnon Cavari Reichman University; Professor Ilana Shpaizman Bar-Ilan University; Dr. Hani Zubida Emek Yizrael Academic College.