Documents Vanderborght, Yannick 6 results

Depuis la seconde moitié du 20e siècle, les sociétés européennes se distinguent du reste du monde par leur haut degré d'interventionnisme étatique en matière de politique sociale. Les trois dernières décennies ont vu cette situation évoluer : le regain de mobilité internationale du capital et un discours économique dominant en faveur de la limitation du rôle de l'État dans l'économie ont commencé à éroder les bases de ces politiques sociales avec plus ou moins d'intensité selon les pays. La crise de 2008 a également provoqué une hausse brutale de l'endettement des États, des niveaux de chômage et de l'intensité de la spéculation financière. Ces évolutions modifient durablement les capacités de financement de l'État. La vague d'austérité qui en découle, sans précédent depuis la fin de la deuxième guerre mondiale, remet aujourd'hui fondamentalement en cause les « modèles » sociaux en Europe. Cet ouvrage examine les récentes évolutions des différentes composantes des modèles sociaux en Europe avant et pendant la crise. Contribuent à cette réflexion des scientifiques spécialistes des questions sociales, politiques ou économiques européennes, qui souhaitent offrir une approche résolument multidisciplinaire dans une perspective comparative européenne. Le livre donne au lecteur une vision pédagogique et exhaustive des différentes problématiques liées aux politiques sociales en Europe dans le contexte de la crise actuelle."

"It may sound crazy to pay people an income whether or not they are working or looking for work. But the idea of providing an unconditional basic income to every individual, rich or poor, active or inactive, has been advocated by such major thinkers as Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill, and John Kenneth Galbraith. For a long time, it was hardly noticed and never taken seriously. Today, with the traditional welfare state creaking under pressure, it has become one of the most widely debated social policy proposals in the world. Philippe Van Parijs and Yannick Vanderborght present the most comprehensive defense of this radical idea so far, advocating it as our most realistic hope for addressing economic insecurity and social exclusion in the twenty-first century.

The authors seamlessly combine philosophy, politics, and economics as they compare the idea of a basic income with rival ideas past and present for guarding against poverty and unemployment. They trace its history, tackle the economic and ethical objections against an unconditional income including its alleged tendency to sap incentives and foster free riding and lay out how such an apparently implausible idea might be viable financially and achievable politically. Finally, they consider the relevance of the proposal in an increasingly globalized economy.

In an age of growing inequality and divided politics, when old answers to enduring social problems no longer inspire confidence, Basic Income presents fresh reasons to hope that we might yet achieve a free society and a sane economy."

"Is a social investment strategy compatible with the provision of an unconditional basic income? Prima facie, these two scenarios look like incongruent policy alternatives. While social investment – an influential policy paradigm at the level of the European Union – aims at promoting public services and maximum labour market participation, basic income is paid in cash and has sometimes been presented as the key component of a post-work future. In this article, we explore this apparent incongruence and show that these two visions for welfare reform are not necessarily incompatible. We argue that they may share a number of substantial points of agreement, and indeed may reinforce one another according to a logic of institutional complementarity. In particular, we claim that a partial basic income (i.e., a modest unconditional income guarantee, whose amount would be insufficient if one lives alone) could enhance or complement the key functions of a social-democratic version of the social investment strategy. By doing so, we conclude that the integration of a basic income into a social investment package could contribute to overcoming criticisms of the social investment agenda. At the same time, it could rescue basic income from the numerous critics who see it as an unrealistic policy proposal."