The Popularity of Basic Income

Tijs Laenen has written an insightful and important book that not only tells the reader what to make of popular support for basic income, but also how it affects the prospect of basic income becoming policy reality in our near future. A must-read for anyone taking basic income seriously! Jurgen De Wispelaere, Assistant Professor, Stockholm School of Economics, Riga (Latvia) & Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University (Finland) Tijs Laenen, himself an expert in the design and conduct of opinion polls, offers us an invaluable overview of the popularity of basic income across the developed world. His book is an indispensable tool for those who have an interest in the future of basic income and, more generally, in the feasibility of social protection reforms. Yannick Vanderborght, Professor of Political Science at Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles (Belgium) This book provides a state-of-the-art overview of the popularity ofbasic income among the general public. Using data from a wide array of public opinion polls conducted in different countries and years, the book first charts popular support for the ideal-typical version of basic income, broadly defined as a "periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual basis, without means-test or work requirement”. On top of that, the book maps popular support for the many other, differently designed varieties of basic income that are part of real-world proposals, pilots, and experiments – including, for example, a participation income, a negative income tax, and a stakeholder grant. By investigating how and why support for different types of basic income varies across countries, evolves over time, and differs between individuals with different characteristics, this book offers crucial information about the political constituencies that can be mobilized in favor of (or against) the introduction of basic income, thereby contributing to ourknowledge on the political feasibility of basic income. Tijs Laenen is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences of Tilburg University, the Netherlands, where he holds a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, and at the Centre for Sociological Research of KU Leuven, Belgium, where he is coordinator of the “Basic Income in Belgium" project.