Abstract:

This study addresses one central problem and two major controversies in the study of political personalization. The central problem is that of mixing different types of political personalization. This research suggests a typology that distinguishes between various types of political personalization: institutional, media and behavioral. The first controversy concerns the very occurrence of the process of personalization. This study identifies personalization(s) in Israel in all three realms: institutional personalization, expressed in the democratization of candidate selection methods; personalization in the media, expressed in an increase in the focus of media coverage on individual politicians and a decrease in focusing on political parties; and personalization in the behavior of politicians, expressed in an increase in the share of legislation that is initiated through private member bills. The second controversy concerns the causal relationship between the different types of person