Legislating democratic backsliding: a novel dataset

How do populist governments orchestrate democratic backsliding through parliamentary legislation? This paper introduces the Israeli Anti-democratic Bill Monitor (IABM) as a theoretical framework and an empirical template for tracking and analyzing anti-democratic legislation. We present the Backsliding Protocol, a framework identifying seven categories of democratic erosion: judicial overhaul, electoral manipulation, civil service politicisation, media control, human rights violations, religious coercion, and academic freedom infringement. Analyzing 497 bills, we find that Israel's 37th government simultaneously targeted multiple democratic pillars, primarily through judicial reform and human rights restrictions. The data reveals accelerated legislative processes (45 per cent of enacted bills passing within 50 days) and strategic use of Private Member Bills to evade scrutiny. Compared to the previous Israeli right-wing government, dramatic increases appear across categories. The IABM enables systematic analysis of legislative backsliding patterns and serves as a template for researchers, civil society, policymakers, and citizens monitoring democratic erosion.