Basic Income

Basic Income

A Basic Income - sometimes called a Citizen's Income, Citizen's Basic Income, or Universal Basic Income - is an unconditional income for every individual

Unconditional: Towards unconditionality in social policy

The publisher says this about the book:

Can anything ever be truly unconditional? Can public services such as healthcare or education be unconditional? And can an income ever be unconditional? This incisive book responds to these questions with a qualified ‘yes,’ and considers whether a social policy regime based on unconditionality might ever replace neoliberalism.

Beginning with an exploration of the meaning of unconditionality and how the term relates to concepts such as universality and reciprocity, Malcolm Torry lays the foundations for an understanding of what an unconditionality paradigm in social policy might look like. He investigates how social policy characterized by unconditionality might fit within the spectrum of welfare state regimes and sets out the arguments for and against unconditionality in healthcare, education, income provision, and other social policy areas. Chapters delve into the history and ethics of unconditionality in social policy, with close reference to Hebrew and Christian scripture and philosophers’ discussions on the possibility of unconditional giving.
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The Palgrave International Handbook of Basic Income, second edition

The second edition of this popular Palgrave International Handbook of Basic Income has now been published as an ebook, and will be published in hardback on the 21st of November. The book is an edited collection of chapters about a wide variety of aspects of the Basic Income debate, written by a total of fifty-two authors. The handbook is international in three senses: the scope of the content is international, and describes the state of the global Basic Income debate as it is in 2023; the authors are drawn from five continents; and many of the chapters are written by authors from different countries working together. 
The first edition of the Handbook is still available.
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A Research Agenda for Basic Income

From the publisher's website:

Highlighting the diversity and complexity of the global Basic Income debate, Malcolm Torry assesses the history, current state, and future of research in this important field. Each chapter offers a concise history of a particular subfield of Basic Income research, describes the current state of research in that area, and makes proposals for the research required if the increasingly widespread global debate on Basic Income is to be constructive.
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A Modern Guide to Citizen's Basic Income: A multidisciplinary approach

As far as I know, this is the only single volume multidisciplinary study of Basic Income. Each chapter sets out from a different academic discipline - language, history, ethics, economics, psychology, social psychology, sociology, social policy, social administration, politics, political economy, and law - and asks what that discipline might contribute to the Basic Income debate. 

The hardback was published in 2020. It is now available in paperback as well.
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Basic Income - What? Why? and How?

Aspects of the Global Basic Income Debate

This book is entirely about those aspects of the global Basic Income debate about which there is most discussion and sometimes the most conflict. It is based on conference papers, previously published chapters, and other previously published articles, working papers, and reports: material that has already benefited from consultation and debate, as is appropriate for a book about aspects of a debate that are the subject of frequent consultation and discussion.

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Basic Income: A history

This first comprehensive history of Basic Income, first published in 2021, is now out in paperback.


The publisher says this about the book: 'Presenting a truly comprehensive history of Basic Income, Malcolm Torry explores the evolution of the concept of a regular unconditional income for every individual, as well as examining other types of income as they relate to its history. Examining the beginnings of the modern debate at the end of the eighteenth century right up to the current global discussion, this book draws on a vast array of original historical sources and serves as both an in-depth study of, and introduction to, Basic Income and its history.'

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Why we need a Citizen's Basic Income: The desirability, feasibility and implementation of an unconditional income

Money for Everyone: Why we need a Citizen's Income was published in 2013: the first general introduction to the subject for over twenty years. Three years later the publisher, Policy Press, asked me for a second edition: but the debate about Basic Income had moved so fast during that time that Money for Everyone was seriously out of date, not only in its detail, but in its structure as well. The question to which that book was addressed was 'Is Basic Income a good idea?' By 2016, questions were as much about feasibility and implementation as they were about desirability. So Why we need a Citizen's Basic Income is an almost entirely different book: hence the new title and subtitle.

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The feasibility of Citizen's Income

It was around 2014 that the Basic Income debate started to take off, and questions were being asked about feasibility. I was asked for a book on the subject, and so wrote The Feasibility of Citizen's Income. Each chapter tackles a different kind of feasibility: financial, psychological, administrative, behavioural, political, and policy process. A Basic Income scheme would have to pass all of those different feasibility tests for it to be regarded as feasible. 
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101 Reasons for a Citizen's Income: Arguments for giving everyone some money

Money for Everyone, published in 2013, was designed to be an accessible paperback: but following its publication the publisher asked me for a shorter and even more accessible book: so I started to collect reasons for implementing a Basic Income. I ended up with a list of well over a hundred of them, which I then had to cut. (With hindsight, I ought not to have cut 'reciprocity'). The result was 101 Reasons for a Citizen's Income, in which each page contains a different reason for a Basic Income.
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Citizen's Basic Income: A Christian social policy

This book was written in response to a request for an accessible paperback that would relate Basic Income to the Christian Faith. Each chapter sets out from a Christian doctrine and related biblical texts, and evaluates both Basic Income and existing benefits systems against them. 
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Research papers, and chapters in edited collections

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