Social Norms and Sector-Level Engagement with the State: Evidence from East Jerusalem,

Abstract

In East Jerusalem, the vast majority of Palestinians contest the legitimacy of the Israeli state’s claim to sovereignty. This necessarily affects how Palestinians engage with the state in pursuit of goods, services, rights, and resources. But how? Using data from 55 interviews and original observational and experimental survey data from a representative sample of East Jerusalemites, I show that collective social norms surrounding the acceptability of a particular state-provided good, service, or institution (GSI) determine the extent to which individuals engage with the state in that sector. Where social norms deem a GSI to be acceptable, there is widespread engagement. However, anti-normalization (Arabic: tatbi’a) norms lower levels of engagement with the state in select sectors. This article provides an alternative explanation to those in the citizen claim-making literature. Rather than material factors, social norms can drive individuals to engage with or avoid the state depending on the sector in question.