A Basic Income is a periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual basis, without means-test or work requirement.
The Royal Society of Arts Explains: [2 minutes]
BIEN Congresses
The 24th BIEN CONGRESS in Maricá & Niterói – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 27-29 August 2025
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BIEN2024 was August 29–31 (Pictures and more coming soon)
Recent News, Opinion, and Research
SWITZERLAND: National Referendum will be held on Basic Income
Following a successful grass-root campaign, Switzerland will hold national referendum to vote on basic income.
Nicholas Vrousalis, "Exploitation, Vulnerability, and Social Domination"
This paper develops and defends an account of exploitation that is based on the kindred ideas of vulnerability and power, and argues against accounts of exploitation based on distributive justice. One strand of the argument consists in showing that a universal basic...
Elvis Muraranganda, “US academic wants Namibia to go BIG”
This article reports on Karl Widerquist’s lecture on BIG at the Bank of Namibia conference and on Social Safety Nets on September 26, 2013. The article also reports on the debate over BIG in Namibia. According to Widerquist, the quotes in the article are inaccurate,...
Thames Valley Plan C, “UBI: A Necessary Part of Progress”
This article (authored by Andrew and Elliot from Thames Valley Plan C) outlines the revolutionary potential offered by a universal basic income. Beyond the boons of added security and large-scale reductions in poverty lie the seeds of a more profound societal...
AUDIO, SWEDISH: Daniela Marquardt “Is Basic Income a solution for Switzerland? [Är medborgarlön en ekonomisk lösning för Schweiz?]”
[by Karsten Lieberkind] In this interview (in Swedish), Daniela Marquardt speaks with Daniel Häni who runs a very successful café in Basel, Switzerland, in what was previously a major bank. He is also one of the founders of the Swiss Basic Income movement. This...
Tina Rosenberg, "The Benefits of Cash Without Conditions"
[Timothy Roscoe Carter] In a recent op-ed piece in the New York Times, Tina Rosenberg summarizes recent results from the Give Directly campaign in Kenya and a couple of other unconditional cash transfer programs in Uganda and contrasts them with conditional transfer...
Jürg Müller, “The ‘emancipation of Switzerland or an ‘attack on the welfare state’? The debate over a basic income”
[Craig Axford] Jürg Müller of the Swiss Review reports proponents of an unconditional basic income (UBI) are planning to submit 100,000 signatures or more to Switzerland’s Federal Chancellery on October 13th. (Organizers of the initiative have since moved that date up...
Jonny Steinberg, “Idea of jobs for all blinds us to need for welfare”
[Craig Axford] Jonny Steinberg, professor of African Studies at Oxford University, argues that South Africa’s failure to provide grants to unemployed young men is shifting the burden of supporting this segment of the nation’s population onto the working poor. This has...
Thomas Smith, “The Guaranteed Basic Income – Reality or Utopia?”
[By Craig Axford] In this blog post Frank Thomas Smith recounts a recent visit to Germany where he first encountered the idea of a basic guaranteed income. He explores the challenges companies and employees face as automation and outsourcing continue to reduce the...
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: Van Parijs on basic income, October 8, 2013
Philippe Van Parijs (Louvain and Oxford) will give a conference on basic income in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, on October 8, 2013. The conference is organized by a local section of the political party cdH, a left-of-centre party with Christian-democratic roots....
Olga Khazan, “The Case for Unconditional Handouts to the Poor”
[By Craig Axford] In this article in The Atlantic, Olga Khazan points to recent research coming out of Morocco that demonstrates unconditional handouts to those in need leads to better outcomes than conditional handouts. Many fail to enrol in conditional programs at...
Bern, Switzerland: Swiss Basic Income Initiative Calls for Gathering, October 4, 2013
The 4th of October will be a major event for the international Basic Income community. The 116,000 signatures collected in Switzerland since April 2012 for the popular initiative for an unconditional basic income will be handed over to the Swiss parliament. Because of...