Suspicious Minds in Basic Income and Conditional Cash Transfers
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Facundo García Valverde
Abstract
Anti-poverty policies and attitudes of distrust toward the needy share a long history. From the narratives of de Quevedo’s El Buscón, in which beggars are presented as able-bodied individuals making a concerted effort to take advantage of others, to the invasive physical tests and “workhouses” that were part of the English Poor Laws, the poor have long been regarded as deserving careful oversight. Although in increasingly subtle ways, this history continues as part of a popular set of policies in Latin America called “Conditional Cash Transfers,” which make income support conditional on certain behavioral changes. This paper argues that this resumption in recent times is normatively problematic because it harms the beneficiaries’ self-esteem, leading to stereotypes and sociological errors that reproduce social hierarchies. Alternatively, the paper advances a comparative defense of Basic Income on the basis of its lesser-known affinity with non-discriminatory attitudes.
Funding source: Human Development Masters Program. Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO)
Funding source: Fulbright Association
Acknowledgments
A previous version of this paper was presented in a talk at the Department of Philosphy of the University of Michigan, and at the 2021 BIEN Conference. I thank all attendees for their comments and especially the support and detailed feedback provided by Elizabeth Anderson and Meena Krishnamurthy. I would also thank the suggestions and comments made by an anonymous referee of Basic Income Studies.
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© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Notes
- Temporary Basic Income in Times of Pandemic: Rationale, Costs and Poverty-Mitigation Potential
- Research Articles
- How Welfare Policies Can Change Trust – A Social Experiment Assessing the Impact of Social Assistance Policy on Political and Social Trust
- Suspicious Minds in Basic Income and Conditional Cash Transfers
- The State of the UBI Debate: Mapping the Arguments for and against UBI
- Book Review
- Thomas Piketty: A Brief History of Equality
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Notes
- Temporary Basic Income in Times of Pandemic: Rationale, Costs and Poverty-Mitigation Potential
- Research Articles
- How Welfare Policies Can Change Trust – A Social Experiment Assessing the Impact of Social Assistance Policy on Political and Social Trust
- Suspicious Minds in Basic Income and Conditional Cash Transfers
- The State of the UBI Debate: Mapping the Arguments for and against UBI
- Book Review
- Thomas Piketty: A Brief History of Equality
