Abstract
Universal basic income (UBI) has become the rallying cry for a growing international movement seeking redistribution and equality through direct cash payments by governments to all its citizens. Advocates have promoted UBI on multiple grounds: efficiency, equality, as an alternative to traditional anti-poverty aid programs in very poor countries, or even as the foundation for small “c” communist societies. Numerous small-scale experiments of cash transfers have been conducted across the globe purporting to test UBI’s plausibility. In this essay, I explore the multiple agendas of UBI, and consider whether recent scholarship suggests that it might provide a superior path to achieving the historical goals of the political left than that of social democracy and contemporary welfare states. I also raise questions about the political foundations of a movement seeking to end mandatory work, while noting the future possibility of massive job losses that might alter the social, economic, and political possibilities for UBI.
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Notes
The basic income symposium in Theory and Society appeared in.
For more on these limits, an important discussion is provided by Jackson (2020).
Steensland (2007) provides the definitive historical account of the remarkable rise and fall of the Family Assistance Plan.
My argument on this question is presented in joint work with sociologist Clem Brooks; see Brooks and Manza 2007.
References
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Acknowledgements
Thanks to my colleagues Sarah Cowan, David Garland, and Caitlin Zaloom, and Karen Lucas and the editors of Theory and Society, for their comments on an earlier draft of this essay.
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Manza, J. If universal basic income is the answer, what is the question?. Theor Soc 52, 625–639 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-022-09490-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-022-09490-4