Promoting Income Security as a Right: Europe and North America (Anthem Studies in Development and Globalization) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1843311747 ISBN 13: 9781843311744

Verlag: Anthem Press, 2005

Inhaltsangabe

This book is about an idea that has a long and distinguished pedigree, the idea of a right to a basic income. This means having a modest income guaranteed – a right without conditions, just as every citizen should have the right to clean water, fresh air and a good education.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ian Parker is Professor of Psychology in the Discourse Unit at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he is managing editor of 'Annual Review of Critical Psychology'.' He is a member of Psychology Politics Resistance, which is now part of the Asylum collective. He has produced seventeen books, including The Crisis in Modern Social Psychology, and how to end it (1989), Qualitative Psychology: Introducing Radical Research (2005) and Slavoj Zizek: A Critical Introduction (Pluto Press, 2004).

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Bath, UK

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Promoting Income Security as a Right: Europe and North America

By Guy Standing

Wimbledon Publishing Company

Copyright © 2005 International Labour Organization
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-84331-174-4

Contents

List of Figures, ix, 
List of Tables, xi, 
Introduction xiii, 
Section 1. Basic Income as a Right, 
1. About time: Basic income security as a right Guy Standing, 1, 
2. How basic income is moving up the policy agenda: News from the future Anthony Atkinson, 41, 
3. Can there be a right to basic income? Raymond Plant, 53, 
4. Wasteful welfare transactions: Why basic income security is fundamental Claus Offe, 69, 
5. Migration, citizenship and welfare state reform in Europe: Overcoming marginalization in segregated labour markets Roswitha Pioch, 83, 
6. The Liberal's dilemma: Immigration, social solidarity and basic income Ron Dore, 97, 
Section 2. Rationales for Basic Income, 
7. The psychological rationale for basic income Rosamund Stock, 101, 
8. The limits of production: Justifying guaranteed basic income Sibyl Schwarzenbach, 107, 
9. Liberal and Marxist justifications for basic income Michael Howard, 115, 
10. Basic income, commons and commodities: The public domain revisited Michael Krätke, 131, 
11. 'Calling': A Christian argument for basic income Torsten Meireis, 147, 
12. Social credit as economic modernism: Seven theses Alan Dyer, 165, 
13. Deliberative democracy and the legitimacy of basic income Jørn Loftager, 181, 
Section 3. Legitimizing Basic Income Politically, 
14. Mobilizing support for basic income Steven Shafarman, 197, 
15. A legitimate guaranteed minimum income? Stefan Liebig and Steffen Mau, 209, 
16. Republicanism and basic income: The articulation of the public sphere from the repoliticization of the private sphere Daniel Raventós and David Casassas, 231, 
17. Working poor in Europe: A partial basic income for workers Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn, 255, 
18. Basic income, social polarization and the right to work José Noguera and Daniel Raventós, 273, 
19. Popular support for basic income in Sweden and Finland Jan Otto Andersson and Olli Kangas, 289, 
20. The principle of universalism: Tracing a key idea in the Scandinavian welfare model Nanna Kildal and Stein Kuhle, 303, 
21. Women's politics and social policy in Austria Sabine Stadler, 327, 
22. Bio-economics, labour flexibility and cognitive work: Why not basic income Andrea Fumagalli, 337, 
23. Exploring ways to reconcile flexible employment with social protection Pascale Vieille and Pierre Walthery, 351, 
Section 4. Building Towards Basic Income, 
24. On a path to just distribution: The caregiver credit campaign Theresa Funiciello, 363, 
25. A care-worker allowance for Germany Michael Opielka, 369, 
26. Feminist arguments in favour of welfare and basic income in Denmark Erik Christiensen, 385, 
27. Public support for basic income schemes and a universal right to health care: What the French people think Christine le Clainche, 407, 
28. Activation of minimum income and basic income: History of a comparison of two ideas Gianluca Busilacchi, 433, 
National and Regional Initiatives, 
29. The universal grant and income support in Spain and the Basque Country Luis Sanzo-González, 467, 
30. The impact of basic income on the propensity to work: Theoretical gambles and microeconometric findings Claude Gamel, Didier Balsan and Josiane Vero, 483, 
31. A failure to communicate: The labour market findings of the negative income tax experiments and their effects on policy and public opinion Karl Widerquist, 503, 
32. Basic income and the means to self-govern Simon Wigley, 543, 
33. The Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend: An experiment in wealth distribution Scott Goldsmith, 553, 
34. Social citizenship and workfare in the United States and Western Europe: From status to contract Joel Handler, 567, 

CHAPTER 1

ABOUT TIME: BASIC INCOME SECURITY AS A RIGHT

Guy Standing

1. A Vision: Basic Income Security and 'Decent Work'

We live in strange times, in a world of greater monetary affluence than at any time in history, yet with more people living in wretched poverty than ever before. Wars and retribution make the news every day, and the voices of peace have been reduced to a whisper. There is economic insecurity almost everywhere, which has helped fan intolerance, and the anger of relative and absolute deprivation. This in turn has been feeding extremism, 'angst', bitterness and anomic consumerism. And yet, so much of all this is so unnecessary. Politicians, their advisers and policymaking civil servants should step back and think again.

There is a desire for something better and calmer. People around the world have begun to say with increasing conviction that, unless policies and institutions can be made to reduce injustice, insecurity and inequality, we will live an existence in which more and more resources will be devoted to police, prisons and weapons, extended to protect the relatively privileged from the effects of rising anger among the poor and insecure. We surely do not wish to see a fortress world for the privileged, in which everybody feels unsafe. Finding more effective ways of providing universal basic security should be at the top of the international agenda.

In the early years of the twenty-first century, can we form a vision of the Good Society of the future? Let us start with two fundamental questions, to keep at the back of our minds. Bearing in mind that all theories of distributive justice espouse the equality of something, the first grand question is:

What is it that should be equalized in the Good Society of the twenty-first century?

We may start with an underlying premise, which is that readers are egalitarian in some sense of that word, believing that a Good and Just Society must rest on some principle of social justice in which something should be equalized, whether it be income, wealth, status or opportunity to work, save, invest, and live a decent life. In this respect, we may claim that society should rest on a simple principle, that everybody should have basic security – to be equally free, equally protected against morbidity, and have equally good opportunity to develop their competencies and capabilities. Across a broad political spectrum, this fundamental principle is surely accepted. It defines our civilization and our civility, the basis of our inter-generational, intra-generational and cross-national discourse.

So, the essence of the answer is that for real (substantive) freedom, everybody in society must have equal basic security. This must be unconditional and individualized, the former being critical for liberty and for combating paternalism, the latter being critical for gender-related (and many other) issues. The word 'real' is used to signify that there must be a combination of 'negative liberty' – the negation of deprivation and unchosen controls – and 'positive liberty' – the opportunity to make informed and worthwhile choices. Real freedom might be described as the opportunity and capacity to function rationally and purposefully and to develop one's capacities or capabilities.

The second, complementary grand question is:

Assuming a veil of ignorance (i.e. not knowing where they would be in the distribution of outcomes), what sort of society would we want to leave for our children?

The gist of my own...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Anthem Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2005
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1843311747
• ISBN 13: 9781843311744
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 2
• Anzahl der Seiten: 632
• Herausgeber: Standing Guy
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: preigu; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; 49078; Deutschland