Behavioural conditionality: Why the nudges must be stopped - an opinion piece

The use of behavioural conditionality has spread globally and is linked to the growth of behavioural economics and libertarian paternalism. This comment questions the ethics and effectiveness of this powerful trend and considers the alternative of moving towards universalism and unconditionality

Reviving egalitarianism in the Global Transformation: Building occupational security

The world is in the midst of a Global Transformation, reflecting the painful creation of a global market society. Globalization was the disembedded phase, in which inequalities and insecurities multiplied as national systems of regulation, social protection and redistribution were dismantled or broke down. This reflected the collapse of labourism and systems of industrial citizenship, and an end to the building of national welfare states as the development objective. The outcomes were unsustainable. But what should be the counter-movement by which the global economic system will be re-embedded in society? This article suggests that a new approach to social and economic security is required, one that places work and occupation at the centre of life rather than labour, and one in which universal basic economic security is the primary development objective. In order to move in that direction, this article advocates the use of five policy decision principles by which all policies and institutional changes should be evaluated. It concludes by sketching a progressive strategy oriented to occupational citizenship, giving equal respect to liberty, equality and fraternity, or social solidarity. The world is in the midst of a Global Transformation, reflecting the painful creation of a global market society. Globalization was the disembedded phase, in which inequalities and insecurities multiplied as national systems of regulation, social protection and redistribution were dismantled or broke down. This reflected the collapse of labourism and systems of industrial citizenship, and an end to the building of national welfare states as the development objective. The outcomes were unsustainable. But what should be the counter-movement by which the global economic system will be re-embedded in society? This article suggests that a new approach to social and economic security is required, one that places work and occupation at the centre of life rather than labour, and one in which universal basic economic security is the primary development objective. In order to move in that direction, this article advocates the use of five policy decision principles by which all policies and institutional changes should be evaluated. It concludes by sketching a progressive strategy oriented to occupational citizenship, giving equal respect to liberty, equality and fraternity, or social solidarity

The Precariat: Why it needs deliberative democracy

To arrest the drift to social engineering, the voice of those subject to the steering should be inside the institutions responsible for social policy. This means more than putting token ‘community leaders’ on boards. It must be a collective democratic voice. At present, we see the opposite

How cash transfers promote the case for basic income

There has long been a minority view that providing people with cash is an effective way of combating poverty and economic insecurity while promoting livelihoods and work. The mainstream view has nevertheless been that giving people money, without conditions or obligations, promotes idleness and dependency, while being unnecessarily costly. This paper reviews recent evidence on various types of schemes implemented in developing countries, including several pilot cash transfer schemes, assessing them by reference to principles of social justice. It concludes that experience with cash transfers is strengthening the case for a universal basic income

End of a Faustian pact: Workfare and riots

During the past three decades, politicians struck a Faustian pact. In return for ‘labour market flexibility’, government would top up declining wages through subsidies and tax credits and redirect social protection from an emphasis on social solidarity and social insurance to means-tested social assistance. In the aftermath of rioting, they must now face the following fact: it is the economic policies they have supported that are a major cause of the underlying malaise. If they do not, they will find themselves acceding to an increasingly coercive and punitive social policy, epitomised by workfare and the vogue term of ‘conditional welfare’. Politicians must step back from the utilitarian direction in which they have taken us during the past thirty years and consider an alternative road