‘For the people, not just for the elites!’: this is the rallying cry of all brands of populism. The triumph of populism is a calamity, but the threat of populism is a crucial quality of any democracy. It is what makes a democratic regime better than a technocratic, bureaucratic or autocratic regime. It is what […]
Thatcher’s Plot — And How To Defeat It
Where can we find the most lucid compact description of the predicament of today’s European Union? In a powerful plea for its creation written nearly 80 years ago. In “The economic conditions of interstate federalism” (1939), reprinted in his Individualism and Economic Order, Friedrich Hayek explains why he finds a multinational federation, much later exemplified […]
Could Any Good Come Out Of The Brexit Vote?
Will Brexit turn out to be, all things considered, a good thing? I very much doubt it. Essentially because what it amounts to is that a big chunk of the European population is opting out, for an indefinite future, of a major process of civilization. Civilization? Yes, civilization, that is progress from violence to negotiation […]
The Worldwide March To Basic Income: Thank You Switzerland!
June 5, 2016 will be remembered as an important landmark in the worldwide march towards the implementation of unconditional basic income (UBI) schemes. All Swiss citizens were asked that day to express their approval of or opposition to the following proposal: The Confederation introduces an unconditional basic income. The basic income must enable the whole […]
Basic Income And Social Democracy
The basic income approach is absolutely essential, but it is not part of the social democratic tradition. Think about it. The post-war consensus was all about national insurance, it was not about basic income. Now, either we are going to have a basic income that regulates this new society of ours, or we are going […]
The Euro-Dividend
Criticizing is easy. Making proposals is harder. Here is one, simple and radical, yet — I shall argue — reasonable and urgent. Euro-dividend is how I shall call it. It consists of paying a modest basic income to every legal resident of the European Union, or at least of the subset of member states that […]
The Crisis of the GDP-led Growth Model
Watch Philippe Van Parijs (University of Louvain) discuss the above topic. This talk was recorded at the conference ‘From (un)economic growth to future well-being’ organised by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) and the European Public Service Union (EPSU) in Brussels on 15th and 16th October 2012. This video is part of the European growth strategy […]
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