Basic Income on the Agenda: Policy Objectives and Political Chances

293 Pages·2003·2.02 MB·English

by  Loek Groot

Robert van der Veen - Loek Groot (eds)
Basic
Income
Persisting unemployment,poverty and social exclusion, B
a
labour market flexibility,job insecurity and higher wage s
i
c
inequality,changing patters of work and family life are
I
among the factors that exert pressure on welfare states n on the
c
o
in Europe.This book explores the potential of an m
unconditional basic income,without means test or work e

o
requirement,to meet the challenges posed by the new
n Agenda
social question,compared to policies of subsidized t
h
insertion in work.It also assesses the political chances of e

A
basic income in various European countries.These themes
g
are highly relevant to policy-makers in the field of e
n
labour markets and social security,economists,political d
a
philosophers,and a social science audience in general. Policy Objectives and Political Chances
R
Robert van der Veen is professor of Political Theory at the o
b
University of Warwick.Loek Groot is a research fellow er
t

at the Amsterdam School of Social Research,University v
a
n
of Amsterdam.
d
e
r
V
e
e
n

-

L
o
e
k

G
r
o
o
t

(
e
d
s
)
ISBN 90 5356 461 6
AMSTERDAMUNIVERSITYPRESS
WWW.AUP.NL 9789053564615
Amsterdam University Press
Basic Income proef 2 17-09-2000 08:54 Pagina 1
Basic Income on the Agenda
Basic Income proef 2 17-09-2000 08:54 Pagina 2
Basic Income proef 2 17-09-2000 08:54 Pagina 3
Basic Income on the Agenda
Policy Objectives and Political Chances
Edited by Robert van der Veen and Loek Groot
Amsterdam University Press
Basic Income proef 2 17-09-2000 08:54 Pagina 4
Cover design:Crasborn Grafisch Ontwerpers BNO,Valkenburg aan de Geul
Lay-out:Brassica / Wouter Kool,Leiden
NUGI:641/661
ISBN 90 5356 461 6
ªAmsterdam University Press,Amsterdam,2000
All rights reserved.Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,no part of this
book may be reproduced,stored in or introduced into a retrieval system,or transmitted,in any
form or by any means (electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,or otherwise),without
the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of this book.
Basic Income proef 2 17-09-2000 08:54 Pagina 5
Table of Contents
Preface 7
Osmo Soininvaara
Acknowledgements 11
How Attractive is a Basic Income for European Welfare States? 13
Loek Groot and Robert van der Veen
Part One Policy Objectives
In Search of the Double-Edged Sword 41
Paul de Beer
Basic Income and its Cognates:Partial Basic Income versus Earned Income
Tax Credit and Reductions of Social Security Contributions as Alternative
Ways of Addressing the ‘New Social Question’ 53
Philippe Van Parijs,Laurence Jacquet and Claudio Caesar Salinas
Activation and the Burden of Working:On Instrument Choice by a
Responsibility-Sensitive Egalitarian Government 85
Frank Vandenbroucke and Tom Van Puyenbroeck
Arguing for a Negative Income Tax in Germany 107
Joachim Mitschke
Hush Money or Emancipation Fee? A Gender Analysis of Basic Income 121
Ingrid Robeyns
Prospects for Basic Income in an Age of Inactivity? 137
Anton Hemerijck
Basic Income and Social Europe 155
Fritz W.Scharpf
Basic Income at the Heart of Social Europe? Reply to Fritz Scharpf 161
Philippe Van Parijs
European Basic Income or the Race to the Bottom:Why Politicians
Might Come to Think the Unthinkable 170
Steve Quilley
Bibliography 186
5
Basic Income proef 2 17-09-2000 08:54 Pagina 6
Part Two Political Chances
Clues and Leads in the Debate on Basic Income in the Netherlands 197
Loek Groot and Robert van der Veen
The History of an Idea:Why Did Basic Income Thrill the Finns,
but not the Swedes? 224
Jan-Otto Andersson
From Concept to Green Paper:Putting Basic Income on the Agenda
in Ireland 238
Sean Healy and Brigid Reynolds
Short Cuts and Wrong Tracks on the Long March to Basic Income:
Debating Social Policy Reform in Germany 247
Stephan Lessenich
Ups and Downs of Basic Income in Denmark 257
Erik Christensen and Jørn Loftager
What Reforms are Needed for the Minimum Insertion Income
(RMI) in France? 268
Chantal Euzéby
The VIVANT Experiment in Belgium 276
Yannick Vanderborght
Notes on the Contributors 285
Index 287
6
Basic Income proef 2 17-09-2000 08:54 Pagina 7
Preface
Osmo Soininvaara,Minister of Health and Social Services,Finland
Throughout Europe,the idea of an unconditional basic income has been long dis-
cussed by academics,policymakers,and interest groups such as the unemployed,relig-
ious organizations,environmentalists and trade unions.Contemporary issues to which
these debates relate today include unemployment,poverty,marginalization,changing
patterns of family life,labour market flexibility,and institutional questions concerning
the future of social policy under European integration.In Arguing for Basic Income
(1992),edited by Philippe Van Parijs,the ethical foundations for granting everyone a
fully unconditional subsistence income were explored in depth.The present volume
follows this up by examining basic income in relation to concrete objectives of social
and labour market policy (Part I),and looking at its political chances across European
countries (Part II).This may be taken to reflect the fact that the international debate on
basic income has become politically mature in the intervening years.
What,then,can reasonably be thought of the title of the book:Basic income on the
agenda? An ambitious reading might suggest that basic income,or the closely related
negative income tax,is now firmly on the legislative agenda,ready to replace the means-
tested and work-related forms of guaranteed income in European welfare states.As the
contributions of Part II will show,basic income is not on the agenda in that sense,at
least not in any European country,at the beginning of this century.But while the for-
tunes of the proposal depend on contingent circumstances and fluctuations in political
mood,the general outline of the debate is more or less similar everywhere.It is a
debate which is not likely to subside.Consequently,basic income is indeed on the
agenda of welfare state politics.
The challenge posed by basic income rests in its claim that unconditional guarantees
have now become indispensable elements of social policy.They are said to cope more
efficiently with the uncertainties of increasingly flexible labour markets,and avoid the
administrative and incentive pitfalls of means-testing.They are held to provide means
of job transition and retooling of labour capacity,as well as supporting unpaid activities
in the domestic sphere and the associations of civil society,thereby also contributing to
a more equitable redescription of gender roles. However, as proposals to institute
unconditional income of one kind or another become more realistic,they also tend to
mobilize opposition.This is because the unconditional nature of basic income poses a
threat to the primacy of paid work,as the central source of legitimate security. Thus,
basic income forces us to rethink the notion of social obligation,in a way that may
seem,at times,far removed from the reality of mainstream politics.Yet,the problems
which it addresses are undeniably part of that same reality.
The contributions collected in Part I can be read as critical examinations of the
above claims,following the discussions at the Seventh BIEN Amsterdam Congress on
the theme of ‘full employment without poverty’.The main problem here is whether
one can envisage alternatives to the social policies and labour market arrangements of
existing welfare states that would serve the same goals as basic income does,yet in ways
7
Basic Income proef 2 17-09-2000 08:54 Pagina 8
Basic Income on the Agenda
that retain the primacy of paid work.In this debate on policy instruments,the editors
have resisted the inclination to select contributors according to their degree of bias in
favour of the basic income solution.This gives the reader the opportunity to judge how
relevant basic income is to the future of social security and labour participation,in the
emerging space of ‘Social Europe’.
Basic income has become topical again for very practical reasons,which,however,
are slightly different from the reasons for which basic income was pursued in the
1980s.Economic development has forced the present European welfare systems to face
two difficult challenges.The unskilled labour force does not find its place in the labour
market,which leads to a trend of growing structural unemployment.Simultaneously,
the obligation to accept a job offer as a condition of receiving unemployment benefits
does not function any more.Employers do not hire people just to get their time;they
want to have their sincere effort as well. Thus,refusing a job offer does not really lead
to losing the benefit.Unemployment benefits have become a twisted picture of basic
income that gives bad incentives.
It is clearly a handicap to the European countries that the unskilled part of the
labour force does not find employment.In the USA,the Earned Income Tax Credit
(EITC) has proved to have positive effects.The expansion of the EITC has improved
the rather bad position of the working poor and had a major positive impact on the
employment situation.In the EITC system the benefit the state pays to those whose
wages are low grows as the earned income rises.In the European systems,however,
social income transfers diminish – and it is likely that the benefit of earning a part of
your income is cut out completely.EITC is not suitable for European circumstances
since the European basic rights legislation guarantees everyone the necessary income
regardless of participation in the working life.It should,nevertheless,be easy to find the
perfect compromise between the European way (the support diminishes as earned
income rises) and the American way (the support rises as earned income rises):why
not make the amount of support independent of earned income?
Each country has its own history of social politics.Acting and thinking have been
adjusted to the existing system which makes radical and fundamental reforms unlikely.
But the need to rationalize incentives in flexible labour markets,the impossibility of
controlling the readiness of the unemployed to accept work,the difficulties in finding
employment for the unskilled and the requirement of guaranteed minimum income
based on basic rights,lead social politics,step by step,toward a situation much resem-
bling a basic income system that allows,with cause,many means-tested personal bene-
fits.These new systems will vary in names and details but they all converge towards
basic income.The biggest and mentally most difficult step to be taken is to combine
the income transfer systems with taxation,even though taking this step would make it
possible to create rational systems.Basic income thinking was originally inspired by the
ideal of freedom.It is contradictory that basic income is now favoured for almost
opposite reasons:creating rational incentives at the lower end of the income scale and
improving the employment of the unskilled labour force – basic income can be
thought of as a ‘marriage of justice and efficiency’.Basic income does,however,still
include a dream of a freer society. Making this dream come true is worth aspiring to as
systems of social politics inevitably converge towards basic income.When it comes to
the ideal of freedom,the smallest details can make a difference.
Although it may seem most unlikely that any European country would abandon its
8
Basic Income proef 2 17-09-2000 08:54 Pagina 9
Preface
old traditions and reform its social politics so radically as to adopt a basic income sys-
tem,this option is not completely impossible either.The fact that social policies vary
much from country to country creates substantial difficulties for the EU.If,sometime
in the future,the EU or some of the Member States were to unify their architecture of
social security,basic income would indeed be something to build on.
9