A system of government based on loyalty to the ruler, personal ties and family connections has a name: patrimonialism, coined more than 100 years ago by the political scientist, historian, sociologist, and philosopher Max Weber. There is a direct line between governmental corruption and patrimonialism.

Contrary to the norm in democracies, under patrimonialism a leader draws power not from public support or a sense of mission, but from a network of loyalists who are cultivated and rewarded. The goal is not the greater good but rather the establishment of a “king’s court.”

However, patrimonialism, once common in authoritarian regimes, has leaped into the heart of democracy. Political scientists have noted that the phenomenon exists in fragile or underdeveloped democracies. And that is Israel today.

On Wednesday, when the Knesset elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal lawyer as state comptroller, we saw how a long line of both senior and junior elected officials do not understand — or choose not to understand — the meaning of basic democratic values.

In the process — a flagrantly illegal process that saw accusations of coalition lawmakers coming under pressure to vote for the premier’s preferred candidate — the coalition enabled Netanyahu to destroy an important democratic institution charged with overseeing the work of government, independent of government, responsible to parliament.

Given his longstanding closeness to the Likud party, the Netanyahu family, and Netanyahu himself, attorney Michael Rabello will face a long and tangled web of conflicts of interest — to the point that every act of oversight he purports to carry out could be met with a petition alleging a conflict of interest. This will be “oversight” without any real capability.

Rabello, if his appointment is not struck down by the Supreme Court — which Netanyahu is also bent on destroying — will even have to recuse himself from the basic role of auditing the financial accounts of political parties during elections, since, as his........

© The Times of Israel