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The Developmental Social Contract and Basic Income in Denmark

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2018

Louise Haagh
Louise Haagh*
Affiliation:
Department of Politics, University of York, UK E-mail: louise.haagh@york.ac.uk
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Abstract

In this article, I discuss why steps towards basic income (BI) ‘from within’ the state are institutionally plausible in Denmark, yet this ‘inside-out’ transition is contested in Danish society. I argue that implementation since the 1990s of the flexicurity regime – labour flexibility with social transfers and training – has stretched the developmental tradition that historically has fed the case for broadly inclusive reforms. An ‘Equality Paradox’ is shaped by two relationships, between high social equality and feasibility of basic income, on the one hand, and high social equality and developmentalism, on the other. The upshot is basic income rests on developmentalism indirectly, as state-promotion of economic equality, cooperative public finance, and human development-oriented governing of core institutions all contribute to the feasibility of a BI reform. The ‘Equality Paradox’ explains why rising inequality and precarity in Denmark make a case for basic income within the public sector but the source of this inequality – neo-liberalism – also puts it at risk.

Keywords

Equality paradoxprogressive basic incomedevelopmentalism
Type
Themed Section: Basic Income in European Welfare States: Opportunities and Constraints
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , April 2019 , pp. 301 - 317
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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