Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T05:29:34.276Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Introduction: Basic Income in European Welfare States: Opportunities and Constraints

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2019

Jurgen De Wispelaere  and
Louise Haagh
Jurgen De Wispelaere
Affiliation:
Institute for Policy Research, University of Bath E-mail: jurgen.dewispelaere@gmail.com
Louise Haagh
Affiliation:
Department of Politics, University of York E-mail: louise.haagh@york.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the space of a mere five years, basic income has become something of a global policy phenomenon. The proposal to grant all permanent residents of a political territory a regular cash transfer on an individual basis, without means-test or work requirement (Van Parijs and Vanderborght, 2017) is actively discussed at the highest levels of policy-making across the world, including by international institutions such as OECD, IMF or the World Bank. At the same time, several country surveys indicate the basic income idea is gaining considerable traction amongst the general public, with support for basic income in the latest wave of the European Social Survey (ESS) averaging slightly above 50 per cent (Lee, 2018). This suggests basic income has now firmly moved away from a mere ‘philosophical pipe dream’ to being considered as a serious alternative to conditional income assistance (Van Parijs, 2013; Haagh, 2017).

Type
Themed Section: Basic Income in European Welfare States: Opportunities and Constraints
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , April 2019 , pp. 237 - 242
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Caputo, R. (ed.) (2012) Basic Income Guarantee and Politics: International Experiences and Perspectives on the Viability of Income Guarantees, New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Cunliffe, J. and Erreygers, G. (eds.) (2004) The Origins of Universal Grants: An Anthology of Historical Writings on Basic Capital and Basic Income, Basingstoke: Palgrave.Google Scholar
De Wispelaere, J. (2017) ‘Basic income – have austerity's chickens come home to roost?’, ISRF Bulletin 13, Independent Social Research Foundation.Google Scholar
De Wispelaere, J. and Martinelli, L. (2017) ‘A new universalism? Varieties of basic income and welfare state reform’, ESPAnet Conference, Lisbon, September 14–16.Google Scholar
De Wispelaere, J. and Stirton, L. (2013) ‘The politics of universal basic income: bringing bureaucracy back in’, Political Studies, 61, 4, 915–32.Google Scholar
De Wispelaere, J., Halmetoja, A. and Pulkka, V.-V. (2018) ‘The rise (and fall) of the basic income experiment in Finland’, CESifo Forum, 19, 3, 15–9.Google Scholar
Dowding, K., Hindmoor, A. and Martin, A. (2016) ‘The comparative policy agendas project: theory, measurement and findings’, Journal of Public Policy, 36, 3–25.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1999) Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Haagh, L. (2007) ‘Developmental freedom and social order: rethinking the relation between work and equality’, Journal of Philosophical Economics, 1, 1, 119–60.Google Scholar
Haagh, L. (2011) ‘Basic income, social democracy and control over time’, Policy and Politics, 39, 1, 43–66.Google Scholar
Haagh, L. (2015) ‘Alternative social states and the basic income debate: institutions, inequality, and human development’, 10, 1, 45–81.Google Scholar
Haagh, L. (2017) ‘Basic income should be seen as a democratic right, not a solution to unemployment’, Royal Society of Arts Journal, 4, March.Google Scholar
Haagh, L. (2019) The Case for Basic Income, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Jordan, B. (2008) Welfare and Well-Being, Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Kangas, O., Simanainen, M. and Honkanen, P. (2017) ‘Basic income in the Finnish context’, Intereconomics, 52, 2, 87–91.Google Scholar
Kettunen, P. (1999) ‘Review essay: a return to the figure of the free Nordic peasant’, Acta Sociologica, 42, 259–69.Google Scholar
Lee, S. (2018) ‘Attitudes toward universal basic income and welfare state in Europe: a research note’, Basic Income Studies, 13, 1, 101–9.Google Scholar
Meade, J. (1964) Efficiency, Equality and the Ownership of Property, London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Offe, C. (2000) ‘The German welfare state: principles, performance and prospects after unification’, Thesis Eleven, 63, 11–37.Google Scholar
Paine, T. (1997 [1797]) ‘Agrarian justice’, in Kuklick, B. (ed.) Thomas Paine: Political Writings, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Standing, G. (2017) Basic Income: And How We Can Make It Happen, London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Van Parijs, P. (1995) Real Freedom for All, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Van Parijs, P. (1996) ‘Basic income and the two dilemmas of the welfare state’, Political Quarterly, 67, 1, 63–6.Google Scholar
Van Parijs, P. (2013) ‘The universal basic income: why utopian thinking matters, and how sociologists can contribute to it’, Politics and Society, 41, 2, 171–82.Google Scholar
Van Parijs, P. and Vanderborght, Y. (2017) Basic Income: A Radical Proposal for a Free Society and a Sane Economy, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar