The Case for Universal Basic Income

✍ Scribed by Louise Haagh

• Publisher: Polity Press
• Year: 2019
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 140
• Series: The Case for
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Advocated (and attacked) by commentators across the political spectrum, paying every citizen a basic income regardless of their circumstances sounds utopian. However, as our economies are transformed and welfare states feel the strain, it has become a hotly debated issue.

In this compelling book, Louise Haagh, one of the world’s leading experts on basic income, argues that Universal Basic Income is essential to freedom, human development and democracy in the twenty-first century. She shows that, far from being a silver bullet that will transform or replace capitalism, or a sticking plaster that will extend it, it is a crucial element in a much broader task of constructing a democratic society that will promote social equality and humanist justice. She uses her unrivalled knowledge of the existing research to unearth key issues in design and implementation in a range of different contexts across the globe, highlighting the potential and pitfalls at a time of crisis in governing and public austerity.

This book will be essential reading for anyone who wants to get beyond the hype and properly understand one of the most important issues facing politics, economics and social policy today.

✦ Table of Contents

CONTENTS
Cover
Front Matter
Acknowledgements
1 Basic Income in Time
Just a Fad?
Basic Income, Human Development and Citizen Equality
Modern Civilization and Social Incorporation
Unfreedom in Welfare – Crises of Incorporation
Pathways to Basic Income Reform
Basic Income and Development Goals
Income and Poverty
Autonomy and Human Development
Social Equality and Public Reform
Notes
2 Human Development Freedom
Social Policy and Market Justice
Human Development and Humanist Justice
Existential Need and Security
Cognitive Development and Stability
Dependence and Fellowship
The Unitary Self and Control over Time
The Competition Economy and the Process of Justice
Notes
3 Democratic Development
Democratic Equality and Public Effectiveness
Basic Income and State Feasibility
Economy and Democracy
Basic Income and Other Benefits
Basic Income or Services
Automation and the Future of Work
Governance and Public Norms
Notes
Conclusion
The Life of a Gentleman
Notes
Appendix
Index
End User License Agreement
Tables

Chapter 1
Table 1. An Illustrative Citizen’s Basic Income Scheme
Table 2. The Effect on Means-Tested Benefits
Appendix
Table A1. Structure of Cooperative Public Finance: Public Revenue Scores and Levels
Table A2. Public Spending on Human Development
Table A3. Education Equality
Table A4a. Relative Employment and Income Returns to Education, Females
Table A4b. Relative Employment and Income Returns to Education, Females
Table A5. Structure of Employment and Non-Employment Time
Table A6a. Structure of Control of Core Human Activities, Social Relations, and Forms of Ti…
Table A6b. Structure of Control of Core Human Activities, Social Relations, and Forms of Ti…
Figures

Chapter 1
Figure 1. Public Revenue and Public Spending on Human Development, 2000 and Trend
Figure 2. Public Revenue and Public Spending on Human Development, mid-2010s and Trend
Chapter 2
Figure 3. Human Economy
Figure 4. Human Development Freedom
Figure 5. Political Economies of Punitive and Humanist Governing
Figure 6. Control over Time, in Work and across Work, Early 2010s
Chapter 3
Figure 7. World Income Concentration, 2000–2015
Figure 8. Human Development States: Labour Market Returns to Education, mid-1990s
Figure 9. Human Development States: Labour Market Returns to Education, mid-2010s
Figure 10a. Unemployment Systems, 2007
Figure 10b. Unemployment Systems, 2010
Figure 10c. Unemployment Systems, 2014