Libertarians should not reject the goal of establishing a global basic income program. There are strong Lockean considerations that favor such a program. This article explains a conception of equal share left-libertarianism that is supported by the rights of full self-ownership and world ownership. It argues that an appropriately constructed basic income program would be a key institution for promoting those rights.

January 19, 2012

Locke on Basic Income

Daniel Layman

Abstract

Perhaps the strongest attempts to derive support for basic income policy from John Locke’s political philosophy hinge on Locke’s view that the world and its resources were originally owned in common by all persons. This world ownership, many have supposed, gives all persons a natural right to equal shares of resources and thus a right to an equal basic income under conditions (like our own) in which nearly all resources have been appropriated. This reasoning betrays a misunderstanding of Locke’s conception of original world ownership and, once this understanding is corrected, it becomes clear that there is no natural right to equal shares of resources, although there is a natural right to sufficient shares. Consequently, although governments must guarantee sufficiency for their citizens, there is no Lockean reason why this guarantee must take the form of a basic income or a scheme of equal and unconditional payments.

January 19, 2012

Taking the "G" out of BIG: A Comparative Political Economy Perspective on Basic Income

Peter J. Boettke, Adam Martin

Abstract

Basic Income Guarantee proposals aim at, among other objectives, the salutary goal of providing a minimum income floor beneath which individuals cannot fall. We analyze this family of proposals through the lens of comparative political economy, arguing that politics is not an appropriate institutional environment for pursuing the end of an income floor. Once the notion of a guaranteed income is cast in realistic, probabilistic terms, it becomes a live question whether the market or the polity can better secure a Basic Income. Actual markets must be compared to real-world political processes rather than idealized policy proposals in order to ascertain their desirability. Drawing on the extant literature on the failure of political processes to realize the goals of other redistributive programs, we argue that Basic Income Guarantee proposals likewise ignore politics as practiced and are thus equally subject to critiques both of their means-ends coherence and their vulnerability to political opportunism.

January 19, 2012

Classical Liberalism and the Basic Income

Matt Zwolinski

Abstract

This article provides a brief overview of the relationship between libertarian political theory and the Basic Income (BI). It distinguishes between different forms of libertarianism and argues that at least one form, classical liberalism, is compatible with and provides some grounds of support for BI. A classical liberal BI, however, is likely to be much smaller than the sort of BI defended by those on the political left. And there are both contingent-empirical and principled-moral reasons for doubting that the classical liberal case for BI will be ultimately successful.

January 19, 2012

Basic Income Is Not an Obligation, But It Might Be a Legitimate Choice

Michael C. Munger

Abstract

A distinction is made between libertarian destinations and libertarian directions. Basic income cannot be part of a truly libertarian state unless it could be accomplished entirely through voluntary donations. But basic income is an important step in a libertarian direction because it improves core values such as self-ownership, liberty and efficiency of transfers while reducing coercion and increasing procedural fairness. Practical approaches to achieving basic income are compared to proposals by Milton Friedman and Charles Murray.

January 19, 2012

Two Libertarian Arguments for Basic Income Proposals

Brian K. Powell

Abstract

For those familiar only with libertarians on the economic right, it seems obvious that libertarians will oppose basic income proposals. However, there are a variety of ways to argue for basic income proposals from within a “left” or “egalitarian” libertarian framework. In this article I argue that such a framework ought to be preferred to the alternative right-libertarian framework. Then I look at a simple left-libertarian argument for basic income proposals that is inspired by Thomas Paine and Henry George, and at another, more complex, argument offered by Phillipe Van Parijs.

January 19, 2012

Libertarianism and the Justice of a Basic Income

Peter Vallentyne

Abstract

Whether justice requires, or even permits, a basic income depends on two issues: 1. Does justice permit taxation to generate revenues for distribution to others? 2. If so, does justice require, or even permit, equal and unconditional distribution for some portion of the tax revenues? I claim the following: 1. although all forms of libertarianism reject the nonconsensual taxation of labor and the products of labor, all but radical right-libertarianism allow a kind of wealth taxation for rights over natural resources, and 2. some versions of libertarianism allow the equal and unconditional distribution of such revenues and some do not.

About this journal

Basic income is a universal income grant available to every citizen without means test or work requirement. Academic discussion of basic income and related policies has been growing in the fields of economics, philosophy, political science, sociology, and public policy over the last few decades — with dozens of journal articles published each year, and basic income constituting the subject of more than 30 books in the last 10 years. In addition, the political discussion of basic income has been expanding through social organizations, NGOs and other advocacy groups. Internationally, recent years have witnessed the endorsement of basic income by grassroots movements as well as government officials in developing countries such as Brazil or South-Africa.

As the community of people working on this issue has been expanding all over the world, incorporating grassroots activists, high profile academics — including several Nobel Prize winners in economics — and policymakers, the amount of high quality research on this topic has increased considerably. In the light of such extensive scholarship on this topic, the need to coordinate research efforts through a journal specifically devoted to basic income and cognate policies became pressing. Basic Income Studies (BIS) is the first academic journal to focus specifically on basic income and cognate policies.

BIS publishes peer-reviewed research papers, book reviews, and short accessible commentaries that discuss a central aspect of the debate on basic income and related schemes. Contributions to BIS will typically discuss the empirical or normative analysis of basic income but may also include articles on related policies such as citizens’ pensions, stakeholder and sabbatical grants, negative income tax or earned income tax credits, and various job guarantee policies. Articles that discuss the state of modern welfare regimes or aspects of social security or employment regulation in more general terms will be considered provided there are clear implications for basic income research. Although BIS places considerable emphasis on rigorous conceptual development and/or thorough empirical analysis, all articles must be written in clear, non-technical language to ensure that they are accessible to non-specialists.

BIS encourages publication both by established scholars and by researchers at the beginning of their careers.

BIS has an international scope, aims to publish original articles and review essays on basic income in all countries, and strongly welcomes papers from non-Western countries.

BIS Essay Prize

Basic Income Studies awards an annual essay prize for the best academic essay on basic income in the preceding year submitted for the prize.　

The deadline for nominations for the BIS Essay Prize is October 31, of the calendar year of the prize.　

Papers to be considered for the BIS Essay Prize can be nominated by a recognized group or organization hosting an academic conference at which papers on basic income are presented in the calendar year of the prize. Recognition by the editors of BIS is a precondition for nomination of papers. The Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) and the BIG Conference (formerly the "North American Basic Income Guarantee Congress (NABIG)") are automatically recognized, and papers presented at these conferences should be submitted by the authors by the deadline. Organizers of other conferences and panels* should request recognition from the BIS editors before the deadline.　

Submission: Send essays by email in Word or PDF format to　mhoward@maine.edu, with "BIS Essay Prize 2022" in the subject heading. For the purpose of determining eligibility, indicate in the body of your email at which conference your paper was presented.　

A panel of judges chosen by the editors of BIS will choose the best English language essay from authorized submissions received by the deadline.　

*A recognized group (other than BIEN or The BIG Conference) representing a conference focused on basic income may nominate up to 5 papers. A recognized coordinator for a panel on basic income at a conference may nominate one paper from the panel.
In recognizing a group, BIS editors may require involvement in the nomination process by one or more members of the BIS editorial board.

Volume 6 Issue 2

Issue of Basic Income Studies

List of Contributors

Content

Review of Gijs van Donselaar, The Right to Exploit: Parasitism, Scarcity, Basic Income

Review of Doris Schroeder, Work Incentives and Welfare Provision: The "Pathological" Theory of Unemployment

Introduction: What is Libertarianism?

A Lockean Argument for Basic Income

Abstract

Locke on Basic Income

Abstract

Taking the "G" out of BIG: A Comparative Political Economy Perspective on Basic Income

Abstract

Classical Liberalism and the Basic Income

Abstract

Basic Income Is Not an Obligation, But It Might Be a Legitimate Choice

Abstract

Two Libertarian Arguments for Basic Income Proposals

Abstract

Libertarianism and the Justice of a Basic Income

Abstract