Universal Basic Income and Equality of Opportunity

Abstract

In an era of persistent growing inequality and poverty, protecting the philosophical aspirations of egalitarianism relevant to social welfare states and basic income is crucial for meeting the demands of distributive justice in society. Egalitarian measures such as basic income form part of distributive justice strategies and contribute to transformative change toward a fairer society grounded in equality of opportunity and social justice. Basic income strongly connects to equality of opportunity through ideals of freedom, collective solidarity, and fairness in distribution. The chapter provides an overview of basic income and connections to equality of opportunity. For transformation to be effective, a normative framework that establishes preconditions is required to ensure the success of implementation strategies. An inherent principle of basic income is freedom. Phillippe Van Parijs (The Blackwell’s companion to political philosophy. Blackwell, Oxford, 2007) has argued for libertarian freedom in basic income strategies to ensure nonconditional principles can be upheld. However, the philosophical and normative justifications can be at odds with basic income in terms of egalitarianism. In order to ensure distributive justice is grounded in egalitarian principles for true basic income and equality of opportunity, this chapter explores two distinct philosophical traditions of justice, that is, Rawls (A theory of justice. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1971) and Fraser (Eur J Polit Theory 6:305–308, 2007). Van Parijs has considered Rawls in his detailing of freedom and equality of opportunity from a libertarian position; yet Rawls’ conception narrowly applies reciprocity and freedom in an individual’s pursuit of a good life. Alternatively, Fraser’s (New Left Law Rev 212: 68–93, 2001) notion of participation parity offers a relevant philosophy that can be applied alongside basic income and equality of opportunity dimensions as part of an overall strategy for socially just transformation of welfare states, social protection, and income security and ultimately toward a fairer society.