Parading Utopia on the road to nowhere? An introduction to the special issue on the policy impact of the European basic income experiments

Abstract

Basic income experiments have emerged across Europe in recent years, but until now analysis has focused on their design and the scientific interpretation of their results, rather than the subsequent policy impact of these projects. This special issue addresses this gap. The papers all focus on whether and how the European basic income experiments have made an observable impact on the basic income debate and social security reform more generally. The special issue includes country case studies of the three countries in Europe that have completed their experiments, Finland, the Netherlands and Spain, as well as a case study of Scotland, where a feasibility study did not result in a field experiment, and of Ireland, which is in the process of planning at least one experiment. Two papers then also examine the effect of these experiments on the debate at EU level and outside Europe, in Australia. The special issue provides a novel contribution that advances both the scholarly and policy debates surrounding basic income at a time when COVID-19 appears to have increased interest in the policy and equally seems to have propelled the idea of experimenting with basic income even further into the mainstream.

Can a Basic Income Make the Digital Revolution More Sustainable and Inclusive?

“…Finland, the Netherlands, Scotland, Ontario, South Korea, and several cities). Yet these pilot initiatives have not provided decisive evidence supporting or refuting the merits of UBI, primarily because many were not appropriately structured to address relevant concerns about basic income policies or to corroborate the benefits that UBI proponents espouse (Chrisp and De Wispelaere, 2022).…”

A basic income for a complex society: Introduction

“…It has been conceptualised through lenses both utopian and technocratic; left and right; techno-futurist and degrowth. And while popular interest has been strong, policy achievements have been more modest (Chrisp & De Wispelaere, 2022). The combination of passionate enthusiasm and limited impact reflects an ongoing disconnect between basic income as an idea and the organised interests of politics.…”

Welfare for Markets: A Global History of Basic Income, by A.Jäger and D.Zamora Vargas (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2023), pp. 264

“…No doubt there is something to this. Basic income is yet to credibly mobilise a political base (Chrisp & De Wispelaere, 2022). Its advance comes more through experiments and pilots than mass campaigns.…”