The Case for a Revision of BIEN’s Definition of Basic Income

Miller Anne Glenda ()
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Miller Anne Glenda: Edinburgh Business School, School of Social Sciences, 3120 Heriot-Watt University , Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, UK

Basic Income Studies, 2024, vol. 19, issue 2, 183-199

Abstract: BIEN’s definitive statement of a Basic Income (BI) and the commentaries on its five characteristics are examined in turn, to identify potential clarifications, revisions and omissions. The following amendments are proposed as a basis for further discussion: to shift the position of ‘unconditionally’ in the definitive statement so that it refers to the cash payment rather than to its delivery; some clarifications to characteristics 3 ‘individual’ and 4 ‘universal’; to introduce ‘uniform’, without which BIs could be used to endorse flagrant discrimination against, or even zero amounts for, less favoured groups; to restore the comprehensive nature of ‘unconditionality’ (which is now characteristic 6), by substituting ‘behavioural requirement’ in place of ‘work requirement’; to give the characteristic ‘without means test’ its own commentary (no. 7). The introduction of ‘uniform’ and ‘behavioural’ into the definitive statement should help to prevent BIEN’s definition from being regarded as male orientated.

Keywords: définition; uniform; behavioural requirements; without means test (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1515/bis-2023-0008

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