372 Asher Friedberg etal.
receive approval from relevant government agencies in order to obtain a business license. The burden of oversight however falls on the Licensing Divisions of the Local Authorities. It is they who issue business licenses and oversee com- pliance with conditions and requirements. The Business Licensing Law provides Local Authorities with two courses of action against businesses that do not comply with its stipulations: issuance of an administrative order to immediately close down business offenders; and initiation of legal proceed- ings. Offenders can be subject to heavy fines and to imprisonment. There is also an overseer of overseers in the form of the Ministry of Interior’s Unit for Business Licensing. This one-man operation promotes busi- ness licensing practices in the local authority business licensing units. Each year, the Unit visits some 70 of Israel’s 267 local authorities. The design of the Unit makes meaningful oversight futile so that the main function is to provide professional advice. A prospective analysis of Israel’s business licens- ing oversight institutions suggests design prob- lems that are unlikely to promote oversight ethics. The division of oversight responsibility amongst national government agencies and between national and local authorities is unclear, leading to potential problems of many eyes and blind spots. The problem of many eyes parallels Thompson’s (1987) concep- tion of the problem of many hands which makes it difficult to