Abstract
In Germany, Basic Income has been discussed publicly since 2004. While the debate had its ups and downs especially concerning media attention, BI, however, still is contested but recognized as one major alternative to the existing welfare system. In this chapter, I will trace very briefly the beginning of the debate from 2003 till 2011, then turn to developments from 2010 on and have a look at where the debate stands today. Instead of presenting contested concepts, I will offer a general idea of prevailing arguments and objections. By doing so I will provide an overview of rather strong and weak arguments pro BI including some which are misleading. Finally, I will draw conclusions of the debate and will have a look at prospects of BI in Germany.
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Notes
- 1.
Due to health issues, Götz W. Werner withdrew from public activities in 2018. Benediktus Hardorp, who was an adviser to Werner for a long time considering value added tax passed away in 2014, aged 85 (see https://blog.freiheitstattvollbeschaeftigung.de/2014/03/12/benediktus-hardorp-ist-verstorben/). Another passionate supporter of BI, who published constantly about issues of financing, Helmut Pelzer, passed away, aged 90, in 2017 (see https://blog.freiheitstattvollbeschaeftigung.de/2017/07/17/helmut-pelzer-ein-grosser-streiter-fuer-das-grundeinkommen-ist-verstorben/; Pelzer and Fischer 2009).
- 2.
Hartz IV is an abbreviation, which refers to the fourth law of the legislation by which the German welfare state was rebuilt, see Fleckenstein (2008).
- 3.
Dieter Althaus is a former State Premier of the state of Thuringia.
- 4.
Her former blog on which she advocated UBI cannot be accessed any more, but she is active on twitter (https://twitter.com/susannewiest).
- 5.
While finishing the chapter, the annual report 2019 has not been published.
- 6.
The party itself does not say much about its chairpersons and the period they chaired. See https://buendnis-grundeinkommen.de/. For more information see http://arnold-schiller.de/buendnis-grundeinkommen-gegruendet/ and https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%BCndnis_Grundeinkommen.
- 7.
Sanctions are used to discipline welfare recipients in case they are not willing to cooperate with welfare institutions. On November 5, 2019, the Federal Constitutional Court (https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/EN/2019/bvg19-074.html) held in its judgment that “sanctions imposed on recipients of unemployment benefits to enforce their cooperation obligations are in part unconstitutional.” The judgment is quite contradictory in itself, although it questions the use of sanctions.
- 8.
I guess it is not exaggerated to be critical about this kind of shift. Taking a closer look at premises underlying sanctions as well as incentives, both are flipsides of the same idea of decision-making driven by rational choice. Some who argue against both BI and Hartz IV propose a minimum income free of sanctions (“repressionsfreie Grundsicherung”), e.g., Christoph Butterwegge (Husmann and Grigat 2017). When confronted by a journalist that a labor-centered welfare state needs sanctions to discipline beneficiaries, Butterwegge answered, maybe not, but those able to work, should earn their own money.
- 9.
It must be said that some countries do have obligations such as the one to vote. But, as far as I know, people who do not vote, do not lose their rights. We can call this a constitutive asymmetry between citizen rights and obligation, which is fundamental to political communities.
- 10.
I am fully aware how little insight these data allow into the motivation of those doing unpaid work and how much the measure of amount of time differs according to definitions applied. Schwarz and Schwahn (2016, 38) are pretty much aware how difficult it is to measure, e.g., the preparedness of parents who are with their children without being immediately involved in their children’s activities. Parenthood is a 24-7-365 occupation.
- 11.
The German statutory pension insurance scheme, which defines minimum conditions for being entitled to benefits, takes periods of childcare (up to three years per child) into account. Certainly, this contribution is not enough to receive a decent pension. In 2007 the government introduced Elterngeld (federal parental benefit; see Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs 2019) for the first 14 months of a child’s life. Parents are divided into two categories. Those, who worked can claim an earnings-related benefit, whereas others who did not work can claim a lump sum.
- 12.
Kindergarten (age 3–6) or daycare (age 1–6) in Germany is voluntary, not compulsory.
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Liebermann, S. (2020). From Marginal Idea to Contested Alternative: Recent Developments and Main Arguments in the German Debate. In: Caputo, R.K., Liu, L. (eds) Political Activism and Basic Income Guarantee. Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43904-0_11
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