Collective action and co-production of public services as alternative politics: The case of public transportation in Israel

Analysing the decades old religion-based case pertaining to restrictions on transportation services on the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday) in Israel, this study argues that the intentional lack of public transport policy on Saturdays is overall met by discontent within the population. Faced with such societal discontent, third sector organizations, and local authorities combined forces to find solutions that supply public transportation on the Sabbath on the local level, meeting the demands of many citizens. Hence, the main thesis explored in this study maintains that: (1) the citizen’s dissatisfaction is within the transportation policy itself, (2) leads to the formation of committed third-sector organizations to improve the transport services, and (3) that politicians and street-level managers are engaged, which leads to co-production of public transport. Using the Israeli case as an illustrative-crucial case study, we employ various mixed methods tools (e.g., online questionnaires, in-depth interviews, textual analysis of primary and secondary resources).