Administrative Staff

Email: avishai.benish@mail.huji.ac.il

Academic Profile: 

LL.B., Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2000; LL.M., Columbia University, New York, 2008; LL.D., Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2009; Lecturer, 2010.

Visiting Professor, University of California, Berkeley, USA, 2014-2015

Currently Visiting at New York University, New York, USA

Chairman, ESPAnet Israel, the Israeli national association of the European Network for Social Policy Analysis (ESPAnet)

Research Interests:

Social rights take-up and advocacy

Regulation and welfare state governance

Administrative justice and accountability in privatized welfare services

Social law and socio-legal studies

Research Projects:

Special issue in Public Administration

Accountability and Hybridity: Understanding Mixed Accountability Regimes under the New Forms of Welfare Governance.

(Guest editor with Professor Paola Mattei, Oxford University)

We invite papers that advance the debate about accountability in welfare governance, focusing in particular on hybridity, changing modes and consequences of changing accountability regimes. Further details are available here.

Between Rights and Care: Integrating Social Rights Advocacy into Social Work Practice (Israel Science Foundation): This research project (with Professor Idit Weiss-Gal) seeks to examine and conceptualize the integration of rights-based advocacy into social workers’ practice by offering  a comprehensive and multifaceted empirical examination of how social workers under the reform engage in take-up practice; of their perceptions of the nature of take-up practice; and of whether and how they incorporate the rights discourse and its logic into their practice.

Social Rights Take-up (Israeli National Insurance Institute): This research project (with Professor John Gal, Professor Mimi Ajzenstadt & Dr. Roni Holler) explores the perceptions and practices of “take-up agents” in the public, private and non-profit sectors in the context of realizing the right to social security.

Publications:

Refereed articles:

Avishai Benish, Dana Halevy and Shimon Spiro (2018) “Regulating social welfare services: Between compliance and learning,” International Journal of Social Welfare, 27(3), 226-235. [Link]

Avishai Benish, Dana Halevy and Shimon Spiro (2018) “A professional learning-based approach to: A case study of the Youth Protection Authority in Israel,” Society and Welfare, 38(1). (Hebrew)

Avishai Benish and Liron David (2018) “The right of access the administration in the welfare state: The (non-)take-up of social rights and the duty to make social rights accessible,” Law and Government, 19, 395-427 [Link]

Avishai Benish, Hanan Haber and Rotem Eliahou (2017) “The Regulatory Welfare State in Pension Markets: Mitigating High Charges for Low Income Savers in the United Kingdom and Israel,” Journal of Social Policy 46(2) 313-330 [Link] [SSRN]

Nissim Cohen, Avishai Benish, and Aya Shamriz-Ilouz (2016) “When the Clients Can Choose: Dilemmas of Street-Level Workers in Choice-Based Social Services,” Social Service Review 90 (4) 620-646. [Link] [SSRN]

Avishai Benish and Asa Maron (2016) “Infusing Public Law into Privatized Welfare: Lawyers, Economists and the Competing Logics of Administrative Reform,” Law and Society Review 50(4) 953-984. [Link] [SSRN]

Avishai Benish and Michal Kremer (2015) “Filling the Void: A Model for the Constitutional Right to Dignified Existence based on the German Constitutional Law,” Work, Society and Law 14 263-279. (Hebrew) [SSRN]

Avishai Benish (2014) “Outsourcing, Discretion, and Administrative Justice: Exploring the Acceptability of Privatized Decision Making," Law and Policy 36(2): 113-133. [Link] [SSRN] [JP]

Avishai Benish (2014) “The Public Accountability of Privatized Activation: The Case of Israel,” Social Policy and Administration 42(2): 262-277. [Link] [SSRN] [JP]

Avishai Benish and David Levi-Faur (2012) “New Forms of Administrative Law in Third Party Government,” Public Administration 90: 886-900. [Link] [SSRN] [JP]

Avishai Benish (2012) “New Public Management Reforms in Social Services: Lessons from 'Welfare-to-Work' Programs in a Comparative Perspective,” Social Security 90: 259- 290.  (Hebrew) [Link]

Avishai Benish (2012) “Social Services in the 21st Century: Trends and Challenges,” Social Security 90: 5-13.  (Hebrew) [Link]

Avishai Benish (2010) “Re-Bureaucratizing Welfare Administration,” Social Service Review 84: 77-101. [Link] [SSRN]

Avishai Benish and Roie Tsarfatie (2008) "When Labor Becomes a Commodity Again: A Critical Examination of Abnormally Low Bids in the Procurement of Employment Services" Tel Aviv University Journal of Law and Social Change 1: 93. (Hebrew)  [Link]

Avishai Benish (2008) “Contracting Out from The perspective of Public Law: Privatized 'Welfare to Work' Programs and the Limits of Oversight" Hebrew University Law Review (Mishpatim) 38: 283. (Hebrew) [SSRN]

Avishai Benish (2005) “Implementation of the 'Wisconsin Program' in Israel – Legal Aspects” Work, Society and Law 11: 121. (Hebrew)

Chapters and articles in books:

Avishai Benish (2018). The Privatization of Social Services in Israel. In: The Privatization of Israel (Paz-Fuchs, A., Mandelkern R. and Galnoor I., Eds.) (pp. 173-200). Palgrave Macmillan, New York. [Link] [SSRN]

Avishai Benish (2009) "Access to Justice in Welfare Services: The Case of the Administrative Tribunals in the 'Wisconsin Program," in John Gal and Mimi Ajzenstadt (Eds.) Access to social justice in Israel. Jerusalem: Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel. (Hebrew) [Link]

Tzvi Inbar, Shlomo Guverman and Avishai Benish (2003) “Constitution-Making and Amending,” in: Procedures for Ratifying and Amending a Constitution and Methods of Designing an Additional Knesset Chamber. Jerusalem: Israel Democracy Institute. (Hebrew)

Books:

John Gal and Avishai Benish, editors (2018) For the Welfare State: Selected Essays by Abraham Doron Tel Aviv: Resling. (Hebrew) [Link]

Mordechai Kremnitzer, David Kretzmer and Avishai Benish (2002) The Basic Laws as a Constitutional Foundation. Jerusalem: Israel Democracy Institute. (Hebrew) [Link]

Academic editing:

Guest editor (with Paola Mattei), Public Administration, “Accountability and Hybridity: Understanding Mixed Accountability Regimes under the New Forms of Welfare Governance” [Call for Papers]

Editor (with David Levi-Faur and Oren Perez), Policy, Regulation & Governance eJournal [Link]

Editor, Social Welfare Law Section, Social Security Journal (Hebrew) [Link]

Research Interests:

Parent-child relationships and children's socio-emotional development;

The early development of concern for others;

Different aspects of parenting and their consequences for children's socialization and well-being;

Cultural context as a moderator of the linkages between parenting practices and child outcomes;

Research Projects:

The development of empathy during infancy

Experimental examination of empathy in infancy

The effects of parental control on children's prosocial development in religious and secular families

Validating a new questionnaire assessing five domains of parental socialization

 Abstracts of Current Research:

The development of empathy during infancy: This is a longitudinal study (BSF funded, in collaboration with Carolyn Zahn-Waxler & Ronit Roth-Hanania) which followed infants from age 3-months to 18-month and systematically examined their responses to others’ distress. Additional variables were also assessed, including infants’ responses to others’ positive emotions, their prosocial behaviors, infant temperament, and parent-child interactions. A follow-up at age 36-months is also being conducted.

Experimental examination of empathy in infancy: This project (ISF funded) utilizes new experimental methodologies to study young infants’ empathic understanding and concern for distressed others. It includes a set of experiments with 3- and 6-months-old infants, using eye-tracking tasks as well as behavioral tasks.

Control and prosocial development in religious and secular families: This study examined secular and religious parents' use of authoritarian and psychological control methods when disciplining their school-aged children, and children's prosocial and antisocial behavior. Children's construal of these parental behaviors was also assessed.

Validating a new questionnaire assessing five domains of parental socialization (in collaboration with Joan Grusec): The questionnaire was constructed based on the domains of socialization theoretical framework proposed by Grusec & Davidov (2010). It is being used in projects examining specific links between different aspects (domains) of parenting and different aspects of children’s and adolescents’ competence.

Select Publications:

Grusec, J. E., Davidov, M., & Lundell, L. (2002). Prosocial and Helping Behavior. In P. K. Smith & C. H. Hart (Eds.),Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Social Development (pp. 457-474). Oxford: Blackwell.

Davidov, M. & Grusec, J. E. (2006). Untangling the links of parental responsiveness to distress and warmth to child outcomes. Child Development, 77, 44-58.

Davidov, M. & Grusec, J. E. (2006). Multiple pathways to compliance: Mothers' willingness to cooperate and knowledge of their children's reactions to discipline. Journal of Family Psychology, 20, 705-708. 

Grusec, J. E. & Davidov, M. (2007). Socialization in the family: The roles of parents. In J. E. Grusec & P. D. Hastings (Eds.) Handbook of Socialization. New York: GuilfordPress.

Knafo, A., Zahn-Waxler, C., Davidov, M., Van Hulle, C., Robinson, J. L. & Rhee, S. H. (2009). Empathy in early childhood: Genetic, environmental, and affective contributions. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1167, 103-114.

Grusec, J. E. & Davidov, M. (2010). Integrating different perspectives on socialization theory and research: A domain-specific approach. Child Development, 81, 687-709.          

Roth-Hanania, R., Davidov, M., Zahn-Waxler, C. (2011). Empathy development from 8-16 months: Early signs of concern for others. Infant Behavior and Development, 34, 447-458.

Davidov, M., Zahn-Waxler, C., Roth-Hanania, R., & Knafo, A. (2013). Concern for others in the first year of life: Theory, evidence, and future directions. Child Development Perspectives, 7, 126-131.

Davidov, M., & Khoury-Kassabri, M. (2013). Recollections of Harsh Discipline in Childhood and Depressive Feelings in Adulthood: The Roles of Culture and Gender. Children and Youth Services Review, 35, 1007-1014.

Davidov, M. (2013). The socialization of self-regulation from a domains perspective. In G. Seebass, M. Schmitz, & P. M. Gollwitzer (Eds). Acting intentionally and its limits: Individuals, groups, institutions (pp. 223-244). Berlin: De Gruyter Publishers.

Schonherz, Y., Davidov, M., Knafo, A. , Zilkha, H., Shoval, G., Zalsman, G., Frisch, A., Weizman, A., & Doron Gothelf, D. (2014). Shyness discriminates between children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome and Williams syndrome and predicts emergence of psychosis in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 6(1), 3.

Knafo-Noam A., Uzefovsky F., Israel S., Davidov M., & Zahn-waxler, C. (2015) The Prosocial Personality and its Facets: Genetic and Environmental Architecture of Mother-reported Behavior of 7-year old Twins. Fronties in Psychology, 6, 112.

Davidov, M., Knafo-Noam, A., Serbin, L. A., & Moss, E. (2015). The Influential Child: How children affect their environment and influence their own risk and resilience.  Development and Psychopathology,27, 947-951. 

Grusec, J. E.  & Davidov, M. (2015). Analyzing socialization from a domain-specific perspective. To appear in J. E. Grusec & P. D. Hastings (Eds.) Handbook of Socialization: Theory and Research (2nd ed.) (pp. 158-181). New York: Guilford Press.

Davidov, M., & Atzaba-Poria, N. (2016). Maternal discipline and children's adjustment: The role of the cultural and situational context. Social Development, 25, 99-119.

Davidov, M., Vaish, A. Knafo-Noam, A., & Hastings, P. D. (2016). The motivational foundations of prosocial behavior from a developmental perspective: Evolutionary roots and key psychological mechanisms. Child Development, 87, 1655-1667.

Davidov, M. (in press). Empathy. In M.H. Bornstein, M.E. Arterberry, K.L. Fingerman, & J.E. Lansford (Eds.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Avinun, R., Davidov, M., Mankuta, D. & Knafo-Noam, A. (in press). Predicting the use of corporal punishment: Child aggression, parent religiosity, and the BDNF gene. Aggressive Behavior.