An unconditional basic income? How Dutch citizens justify their opinions about a basic income and work conditionality

Abstract

The article focuses on one of the core but controversial features of a universal basic income (UBI): its unconditionality. Using qualitative in-depth interviews collected in the Dutch municipality of Tilburg in 2018–2019, we examine the arguments underlying popular opinions about a UBI and work conditionality. The analysis suggests that these arguments can be interpreted from two theoretical perspectives. On the one hand, respondents make frequent use of deservingness criteria referring to the characteristics of welfare recipients, such as their need and work willingness. On the other hand, they justify their opinions using arguments related to the characteristics of welfare schemes, such as their administrative and financial feasibility. Our findings offer important insights concerning political actors who support (or oppose) the real-world implementation of a UBI.

The attitudes of young citizens in higher education towards universal basic income in the context of automation—A qualitative study

“…The negative attitudes of our respondents could also be explained by the Hungarian context, and in this regard our analysis strengthens previous results that show that the context influences the narratives regarding support for UBI (Rossetti et al, 2020; Zimmermann et al, 2020), and that the importance of work may vary in different contexts (Weiss & Hörisch, 2022). Students often expressed views that are in line with the Hungarian government's agenda of a work‐based society.…”

“…These findings are supported by the qualitative research of Rossetti et al (2020). Dutch interviewees justified their support for UBI by emphasising that it would provide basic social protection for everyone and would improve the circumstances of low‐income citizens and social assistance recipients.…”

“…It is a question to what extent citizens would accept such a radical change, even in a future society. While previous studies have investigated attitudes towards UBI (e.g., Dermont & Weisstanner, 2020; Martinelli, 2019; Roosma & van Oorschot, 2020; Rossetti et al, 2020; Zimmermann et al, 2020), these mainly focused on the present context. Only a few quantitative studies have examined preferences in relation to UBI in a future scenario of significant technological unemployment (Nam, 2019; Pulkka, 2019).…”

“…Only a few quantitative studies have examined preferences in relation to UBI in a future scenario of significant technological unemployment (Nam, 2019; Pulkka, 2019). What is more, hardly any research has investigated attitudes towards UBI with qualitative methods (Rossetti et al, 2020; Zimmermann et al, 2020), and none of it has focused on the future context. In this study, we explore attitudes towards UBI in a hypothetical future labour market based on interviews.…”

Basic income support in Europe: A cross-national analysis based on the European Social Survey Round 8

“…In line with several recent theoretical and empirical studies on UBI (cf. Baranowski & Jabkowski, 2019;Lee, 2018;Meuleman et al, 2018;Rossetti, Roosma, Laenen, & Abts, 2020;Taylor-Gooby & Leruth, 2018), we find that the overall support for basic income varies widely in the European countries participating in the 8th round of the ESS project. For example, national-level support for the basic income scheme ranged from 33.1% in Norway to 79.9% in Lithuania (see Table 1).…”