Basic Income News

This new paper by Daniel Raventós and Julie Wark is published by the influentiel left-wing political newsletter Counterpunch (USA). According to Raventós and Wark, the Spanish citizens have taken to the streets and squares in great numbers to demand their rights. In this context, the idea of a basic income is now widely discussed. “The [...]

In its latest issue (105/2012), Notizie di Politeia, one of the most important journal of political philosophy and public affairs in Italy, hosts a Forum about the Right to an inconditional basic income. It includes five contributions. Four of them, by Corrado del Bò, Nicola Riva, Maurizio Ferrara (all from University of Milan) and Andrea [...]

For the advocates of basic income as an instrument to guarantee real freedom, the capabilities approach constitutes an important challenge. It seems that a universal in-cash benefit, such as basic income, would not play any role in a theory so aware of the diversity of people and so skeptic of the idea that real freedom [...]

In this book, Frank Lovett (Political Science, Washington University in St. Louis, USA) argues that “societies are just to the extent that their basic structure is organized so as to minimize the expected sum total domination experienced by their (present and future) members, counting the domination of each member equally” (p.190). Chapter 7 of the [...]

This article by Jurgen De Wispelaere (Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada) and Lindsay Stirton (University of Sheffield, United Kingdom) considers the implementation of a universal basic income, a neglected area in basic income research. The authors identify and examine three important practical bottlenecks that may prevent a basic income scheme from attaining the universal reach [...]

In its latest Socio-Economic Review (2012) entitled Shaping Ireland’s Future: Securing Economic Development, Social Equity and Sustainability, the NGO Social Justice Ireland shows that over 700,000 people (among them, 200,00 children) are living in poverty in Ireland. The report was released on April 10, 2012, and one of its co-authors, Sean Healy, was interviewed by [...]

In order to celebrate its 10th anniversary, Red Renta Básica (Spain’s basic income national network, officially recognized by BIEN) has coedited (with the publishing house Montesinos) a volume with chapters written by some of its members and friends: Jordi Arcarons (“Financing Basic Income”), Borja Barragué (“Basic Income and the Bank of Justice”), Sara Berbel (“An [...]

In this opinion piece published by the French daily Le Monde (March 6, 2012), Philippe Van Parijs (Louvain University, Hoover Chair) compares the eurozone with the United States. Inspired by the works of Martin Feldstein and others, he argues that the eurozone will only be viable at the price of increased interpersonal solidarity. This solidarity, [...]

This special issue of the journal Academia Juris Booklet (in Japanese) is edited by Prof. Miyamoto Taro (Faculty of Law, Hokkaido University), one of Japan’s leading expert in social security reform. It includes one paper by Yannick Vanderborght (Louvain University and Facultés Saint-Louis Brussels) entitled ‘Universal Basic Income and the Tensions of Welfare State Reform’; [...]

The idea of guaranteeing every member of society an unconditional basic income is one the most innovative and powerful proposals for countering our growing economic inequalities and to sustainably prevent poverty. But would this be a just thing to do? In the last few decades, debates on the ethics and economics of basic income have [...]