Scott Santens, "It’s Time We Take a Closer Look at America’s Three Favorite Words: Freedom, Liberty, and Democracy"

In this article, Scott Santens evaluates the American ideals of freedom, liberty, and democracy and the degrees to which they each exist in America today, concluding that a basic income guarantee would best enable these ideals to flourish in actual practice.

Scott Santens, “It’s Time We Take a Closer Look at America’s Three Favorite Words: Freedom, Liberty, and Democracy“, Medium, 28 October 2014.

UNITED STATES: Peace and Freedom Party Endorses Basic Income

Peace and Freedom Party Logo

Peace and Freedom Party Logo

BI News has learned that the Peace and Freedom Party added the following demand to its Platform: “A Universal Basic Income with full social benefits as a basic human right” at its March 22 Central Committee meeting in Culver City, CA. Peace and Freedom is the largest socialist party in the United States with more than 70,000 registered members.

The Summary Platform of the Peace and Freedom Party is online at: https://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/about-us/platform/summary-platform

Simon Birnbaum, "Self-Ownership, Liberal Neutrality and the Realm of Freedom: New Reflections on the Justification of Basic Income"

This paper by Simon Birnbaum (Stockholm University, Sweden) is a review essay of Arguing about Justice. Essays for Philippe Van Parijs, that was published in 2011 (now available for free download in PDF). In his review, Birnbaum stresses the fact that this volume is a “massive firework display of brief essays”, and concentrates on some of the chapters discussing – directly or indirectly – basic income. He discusses the Marxian heritage and justifications of basic income (chapters by Elster, and Zelleke), the left-libertarian arguments (chapters by Steiner, and again Zelleke), Van Parijs’ real-libertarian justification of basic income and the challenges to his views (chapters by van der Veen, and Widerquist), and the tensions between the Marxian and liberal-egalitarian arguments (chapter by Roemer).

Full references: Simon Birnbaum (2013), “Self-Ownership, Liberal Neutrality and the Realm of Freedom: New Reflections on the Justification of Basic Income“, Jurisprudence 4 (2): 344-357.