Localized State Failure and Civil Society Mobilization in Israel After 7 October

Does civil society mobilization supplement or entirely supplant the state during crises? This distinction remains theoretically significant yet empirically underdeveloped. An empirical framework based on the State-in-Society theory is applied in this study to analyze state–civil society relations in Israel following the 7 October 2023 attacks. Using qualitative interviews with 19 civil society leaders from 12 organizations conducted in January 2024, we examine the comprehensive substitution of state functions by non-state actors across security, welfare, and logistics domains. Findings reveal that protest organizations rapidly transformed into primary service providers, creating hybrid governance structures that persisted for months. Unlike government failure (dysfunction within intact institutions) or chronic state failure (gradual erosion in fragile contexts), Israel experienced “localized state failure”—a rapid, geographically constrained yet comprehensive collapse of core state functions in a high-income democracy, with immediate substitution by organized domestic civil society rather than international actors. This mobilization, based on a preexisting protest movement, demonstrates how robust civic infrastructure, even when mobilized against the government, creates latent governance capacity that can be activated during crises. The study advances the state-in-society theory, hybrid governance, and institutional resilience, offering a new perspective for distinguishing temporary dysfunction from fundamental collapse in democratic contexts.