Bills, Rights and Housing Policy: The Evolution of Israel’s Seven-Decade Housing-Related Bills

Abstract

How do bills contribute to the promotion of housing rights? Is there a relation between the content of proposed bills and a country’s dominant political economy? Are changes in the political-economic regime reflected in housing-related bills? What type of bill is most likely to be enacted: a provision or a protection? These are the challenge of this study. The analysis is based on the theoretical classic distinction between “provisions” (positive rights) and “protections” (negative rights) from the realm of human rights, producing an empirical cumulative-aggregative analysis, which examines the scope and content of housing-related bills in the Israeli parliament since its establishment in 1948, until today. The research findings are counterintuitive, challenging the understanding that welfare regimes encourage extensive provisions, as opposed to neoliberal regimes that promote extensive protections. Given the current global housing affordability crisis, the research findings are relevant to many countries, parliaments, and organizations that are currently seeking to promote various housing rights.