Universal Basic Income and the Reshaping of Democracy

Universal Basic Income and the Reshaping of Democracy
Author: Burkhard Wehner
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 65
Release: 2018-12-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 303005828X

How, where and when can a universal basic income be put into political practice? This book discusses these questions by analyzing the political logic of a basic income and its controversial political and scientific implications. The author studies the institutions, rules, and decision-making processes of conventional democracies to reveal an institutional framework in which a universal basic income for all citizens could eventually become politically viable. The work addresses a broad range of topics, such as nationwide experiments with a basic income, voters’ support for the idea, and the effects of a basic income on business cycles and demographic policies. As such, it will appeal to anyone interested in the preconditions and implications of introducing a universal basic income.

Can Democracy Safeguard the Future?

Can Democracy Safeguard the Future?
Author: Grahame Smith
Publisher: Polity
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2021-02-16
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9781509539246

Our democracies repeatedly fail to safeguard the future. From pensions to pandemics, health and social care through to climate, biodiversity and emerging technologies, democracies have been unable to deliver robust policies for the long term. In this book, Graham Smith, a leading scholar of democratic theory and practice, asks why? Exploring the drivers of the short-termism that dominate contemporary politics, he considers ways of reshaping legislatures and constitutions and proposes strengthening independent offices whose overarching goals do not change at every election. More radically, Smith argues that forms of participatory and deliberative politics offer the most effective democratic response to the current political myopia as well as a powerful means of protecting the interests of generations to come.

Renovating Democracy

Renovating Democracy
Author: Nathan Gardels
Publisher: University of California Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2019-04-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0520303601

The rise of populism in the West and the rise of China in the East have stirred a rethinking of how democratic systems work—and how they fail. The impact of globalism and digital capitalism is forcing worldwide attention to the starker divide between the “haves” and the “have-nots,” challenging how we think about the social contract. With fierce clarity and conviction, Renovating Democracy tears down our basic structures and challenges us to conceive of an alternative framework for governance. To truly renovate our global systems, the authors argue for empowering participation without populism by integrating social networks and direct democracy into the system with new mediating institutions that complement representative government. They outline steps to reconfigure the social contract to protect workers instead of jobs, shifting from a “redistribution” after wealth to “pre-distribution” with the aim to enhance the skills and assets of those less well-off. Lastly, they argue for harnessing globalization through “positive nationalism” at home while advocating for global cooperation—specifically with a partnership with China—to create a viable rules-based world order. Thought provoking and persuasive, Renovating Democracy serves as a point of departure that deepens and expands the discourse for positive change in governance.

A Research Agenda for Basic Income

A Research Agenda for Basic Income
Author: Malcolm Torry
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2023-06-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1803920963

Highlighting the diversity and complexity of the global Basic Income debate, Malcolm Torry assesses the history, current state, and future of research in this important field. Each chapter offers a concise history of a particular subfield of Basic Income research, describes the current state of research in that area, and makes proposals for the research required if the increasingly widespread global debate on Basic Income is to be constructive.

A Modern Guide to Citizen’s Basic Income

A Modern Guide to Citizen’s Basic Income
Author: Malcolm Torry
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2020-06-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1788117875

Debate on the desirability, feasibility and implementation of a Citizen’s Basic Income – an unconditional, nonwithdrawable and regular income for every individual – is increasingly widespread among academics, policymakers, and the general public. There are now numerous introductory books on the subject, and others on particular aspects of it. This book provides something new: It studies the Citizen’s Basic Income proposal from a variety of different disciplinary perspectives: the economics of Citizen’s Basic Income, the sociology of Citizen’s Basic Income, the politics of Citizen’s Basic Income, and so on. Each chapter discusses the academic discipline, and relevant aspects of the debate, and asks how the discipline enhances our understanding, and how the Citizen’s Basic Income debate might contribute to the academic discipline.

Competitive Authoritarianism

Competitive Authoritarianism
Author: Steven Levitsky
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages:
Release: 2010-08-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1139491482

Based on a detailed study of 35 cases in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and post-communist Eurasia, this book explores the fate of competitive authoritarian regimes between 1990 and 2008. It finds that where social, economic, and technocratic ties to the West were extensive, as in Eastern Europe and the Americas, the external cost of abuse led incumbents to cede power rather than crack down, which led to democratization. Where ties to the West were limited, external democratizing pressure was weaker and countries rarely democratized. In these cases, regime outcomes hinged on the character of state and ruling party organizations. Where incumbents possessed developed and cohesive coercive party structures, they could thwart opposition challenges, and competitive authoritarian regimes survived; where incumbents lacked such organizational tools, regimes were unstable but rarely democratized.

Utopia for Realists

Utopia for Realists
Author: Rutger Bregman
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2017-03-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0316471909

Universal basic income. A 15-hour workweek. Open borders. Does it sound too good to be true? One of Europe's leading young thinkers shows how we can build an ideal world today. "A more politically radical Malcolm Gladwell." -- New York Times After working all day at jobs we often dislike, we buy things we don't need. Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian, reminds us it needn't be this way -- and in some places it isn't. Rutger Bregman's TED Talk about universal basic income seemed impossibly radical when he delivered it in 2014. A quarter of a million views later, the subject of that video is being seriously considered by leading economists and government leaders the world over. It's just one of the many utopian ideas that Bregman proves is possible today. Utopia for Realists is one of those rare books that takes you by surprise and challenges what you think can happen. From a Canadian city that once completely eradicated poverty, to Richard Nixon's near implementation of a basic income for millions of Americans, Bregman takes us on a journey through history, and beyond the traditional left-right divides, as he champions ideas whose time have come. Every progressive milestone of civilization -- from the end of slavery to the beginning of democracy -- was once considered a utopian fantasy. Bregman's book, both challenging and bracing, demonstrates that new utopian ideas, like the elimination of poverty and the creation of the fifteen-hour workweek, can become a reality in our lifetime. Being unrealistic and unreasonable can in fact make the impossible inevitable, and it is the only way to build the ideal world.

Political Activism and Basic Income Guarantee

Political Activism and Basic Income Guarantee
Author: Richard K. Caputo
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2020-05-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3030439046

This edited volume brings together international and national scholars and major activists leading or spearheading basic income guarantee political initiatives in their respective countries. Contributing authors address specific issues about major efforts to influence public policy regarding basic income guarantee, such as: who were the main advocates and thought leaders involved in support of such legislative initiatives; what were the main organizational and framing strategies and tactics used to influence public opinion and elected officials to support the idea of and policies related to basic income guarantee; what were the major obstacles they faced; and what practical and theoretical lessons might be learned from past and contemporary actions to affect social policy change regarding basic income guarantee and related measures to guide the efforts of activists and public intellectuals in the 2020 and 2024 election cycles.

Global Transformations

Global Transformations
Author: David Held
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 548
Release: 1999
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780804736275

In this book, the authors set forth a new model of globalization that lays claims to supersede existing models, and then use this model to assess the way the processes of globalization have operated in different historic periods in respect to political organization, military globalization, trade, finance, corporate productivity, migration, culture, and the environment. Each of these topics is covered in a chapter which contrasts the contemporary nature of globalization with that of earlier epochs. In mapping the shape and political consequences of globalization, the authors concentrate on six states in advanced capitalist societies (SIACS): the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany, and Japan. For comparative purposes, other states—particularly those with developing economics—are referred to and discussed where relevant. The book concludes by systematically describing and assessing contemporary globalization, and appraising the implications of globalization for the sovereignty and autonomy of SIACS. It also confronts directly the political fatalism that surrounds much discussion of globalization with a normative agenda that elaborates the possibilities for democratizing and civilizing the unfolding global transformation.

Exploring Universal Basic Income

Exploring Universal Basic Income
Author: Ugo Gentilini
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2019-11-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1464815119

Universal basic income (UBI) is emerging as one of the most hotly debated issues in development and social protection policy. But what are the features of UBI? What is it meant to achieve? How do we know, and what don’t we know, about its performance? What does it take to implement it in practice? Drawing from global evidence, literature, and survey data, this volume provides a framework to elucidate issues and trade-offs in UBI with a view to help inform choices around its appropriateness and feasibility in different contexts. Specifically, the book examines how UBI differs from or complements other social assistance programs in terms of objectives, coverage, incidence, adequacy, incentives, effects on poverty and inequality, financing, political economy, and implementation. It also reviews past and current country experiences, surveys the full range of existing policy proposals, provides original results from micro†“tax benefit simulations, and sets out a range of considerations around the analytics and practice of UBI.