Bibliography on Basic Income

Thomas Paine, Agrarian Justice (1797) – read online here

Where it all began. This short essay from Paine is credited as the beginning of the basic income idea, though it seems closer to a proposal for basic capital (see below).

Guy Standing, Basic Income: A Transformative Policy for India (2015)

The book detailing the findings of the Indian basic income pilot that ran over eighteen months in six villages (with a control group of 12 villages), reaching more than 6,000 individuals.

Philippe Van Parijs, Real Freedom for All (1995)

An academic work from the mid 90’s that is in part responsible for the resurgence of basic income, at least in academic circles. The fourth chapter, which uses “employment rents” as a way of funding basic income, is particularly innovative.

Guy Standing, The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class and A Precariat Charter: From Denizens to Citizens

Bruce Ackerman & Anne Alstott, The Stakeholder Society (1999)

An explicit updating and revival of Paine’s ‘Agrarian Justice’ pamphlet, this is an advocacy for a lump capital sum (the proposal is $80,000 / year) which an adult receives at maturity (passing certain conditions). Note that it is not a proposal for a continuous stream of income, nor is it fully unconditional.

André Gorz, Reclaiming Work (1999)

This is the final work from one of the first European thinkers to address technology’s influence on employment possibilities in contemporary advanced Western economies. In this work Gorz embraces full unconditionality of a basic income after previous reticence to such a move.

Daniel Raventos, Basic Income: The Material Conditions of Freedom (2007)

A comprehensive analysis of the different political justifications and understandings of basic income. The author proposes that basic income be adopted from a republican standpoint, emphasizing the material independence of basic income facilitates.

Matthew C. Murray and Carole Pateman (eds.), Basic Income Worldwide: Horizons of Reform (International Political Economy). (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)

This collection of essays argues that basic income is not just an abstract or academic ideal, but a functioning reality and a realistic proposal for global reform. It also allows readers to appreciate a wide range of practical approaches to basic income.

Malcom Torry, Money for Everyone: Why we need a citizen’s income (2013)

Written by one of the key members of the UK’s Citizen’s Income Trust, this is a great book full of up to date information about Basic Income in the UK with international references to back it up. Painstakingly researched and written in an accessible and concise style.