Unconditional Basic Income (or UBI, or Basic Income, for simplify) is an individual, universal and unconditional cash transfer. As such, its proponents (Van Parijs, 1995; Birnbaum, 2012; Widerquist, 2013; Van Parijs and Vanderborght, 2017; Bidadanure, 2019) argue that every individual in a given political community should be entitled to monthly or annual stipend as high as it can possibly be (i.e., often set at the poverty line, or above it), regardless of their income, or occupation. Therefore, UBI functions as a predictable safety net, which is not means-tested nor conditional on work or training.

What would a Basic Income Society look like?

UBI is congruent with a number of comprehensive political projects, and it is worth spelling out what they can be. On the one hand, right libertarians like Milton Friedman (1968) or Charles Murray (2008) argue for a Negative-Income Tax or Basic Income, respectively, that could substitute existing provisions in the welfare state. The monthly payments, which in the first case, will take the form of a positive tax transfer only for those below a certain threshold of income, would be thus the only form of assistance provided by the state, which would have to cut their welfare programs including most traditional welfare programs (i.e., assistance to the poor, unemployment benefits, but also the universal provisioning of health or education).

Other UBI proponents, such as Philippe Van Parijs, Simon Birnbaum, claim that a UBI should be implemented alongside other welfare programs, noteworthy the provision of health and education; replacing only cash transfers which are made redundant, while ensuring that the worst-off are not left in a worse material position after a UBI is implemented.

What to read about basic income

• Van Parijs, P., 1992. Competing justifications of basic income. Arguing for basic income: Ethical foundations for a radical reform, 3, pp.23-24.
• Van Parijs, P., 1995. Real freedom for all: What (if anything) can justify capitalism?. Clarendon Press.
• De Wispelaere, J. and Stirton, L., 2004. The many faces of universal basic income. The Political Quarterly, 75(3), pp.266-274.
• Zelleke, A., 2011. Feminist political theory and the argument for an unconditional basic income. Policy & Politics, 39(1), pp.27-42.
• Birnbaum, S., 2012. Basic income reconsidered: Social justice, liberalism, and the demands of equality. Springer.
• Widerquist, K., 2013. Independence, propertylessness, and basic income: A theory of freedom as the power to say no. Springer.
• Van Parijs, P. and Vanderborght, Y., 2017. Basic income: A radical proposal for a free society and a sane economy. Harvard University Press.
• Bidadanure, J.U., 2019. The political theory of universal basic income. Annual Review of Political Science, 22(1), pp.481-501.
• Van Parijs, P., 2023. A short history of the Basic Income idea. In The Palgrave International Handbook of Basic Income (pp. 43-59). Cham: Springer International Publishing.