In The Politics of Autism, I discuss military personnel and military families. The IDF recruits autistic soldiers.
Abstract
How do policy entrepreneurs achieve policy change in the absence of the direct involvement of politicians? While the public policy literature has examined the conditions under which politicians refrain from direct engagement in policy design, less attention has been paid to the strategies policy entrepreneurs employ when political actors are absent from the policy arena. We address this gap by examining how policy entrepreneurs independently advance policy change. Drawing on 30 in-depth interviews and textual analysis, and using the “Roim Rachok” (“Looking Ahead”) program, which facilitates the inclusion of individuals on the autism spectrum in the Israel Defense Forces as a case study, we have several indications of the strategies of policy entrepreneurs in the absence of political involvement. First, the policy entrepreneurs operated through institutionalized collaborative networks for funding. Second, they leveraged Israel's security challenges as a structured framework to advance change. Third, the policy entrepreneurs created an organizational infrastructure. Fourth, they used trust building as a strategy when collaborating with security organizations.
From the article:
The "Roim Rachok" program was founded in 2012 by two former employees of the Israeli Defense Ministry. It was not a project undertaken by the Israeli government. Its goal is to include those on the autism spectrum in the IDF, specifically in military professions where the distinctive abilities of this population can address personnel shortages. Thus, the program regards integrating individuals on the autism spectrum as an operational imperative for the military rather than a charitable endeavor aimed at supporting a disadvantaged population (Greenbank et al., 2024).
