Abstract
This chapter explores a variety of different ways in which terms are defined: according to current usage; by a list of characteristics; by a legitimate authority on the basis of normative considerations; or by a legitimate authority on the basis of current usage. These methods are then employed in order to construct a variety of definitions of ‘Basic Income’. How ‘Basic Income’ and related terms are used in practice is discussed, and a categorisation of definitions is attempted.
The chapter then asks how such terms as ‘guarantee’, ‘unconditional’, and ‘universal’ might be defined, and relates the definitions of these words to the definitions of Basic Income.
Some policy implications are discussed.
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Acknowledgements
This chapter publishes for the first time a paper presented at the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN, 2022b) annual congress in 2017 in Lisbon, Portugal. Some of the material was first presented in another paper entitled ‘“Unconditional” and “Universal”: Definitions and applications presented at the Federation for International Studies on Social Security conference at Sigtuna, Sweden, from the 5th to the 7th June 2017, the full version of which appears as Chapter 3 in this volume. The material contained in this chapter has frequently been quoted and referenced in the author’s books, but this is the first time that it has been published in its entirety as originally presented at the 2017 BIEN congress.
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Appendix
Appendix
The appendix containing the definitions of Basic Income employed by BIEN’s affiliated organisations can be found at the end of the original congress paper, which can be found at https://basicincome.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Malcolm_Torry_Whats_a_definition_And_how_should_we_define_Basic_Income.pdf.
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Torry, M. (2022). Defining Basic Income. In: Basic Income—What, Why, and How?. Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14248-2_2
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