Is There A Progresssive Alternative To Conservative Welfare Reform?
Progressive scholars have been strongly critical of conservative trends in the design and administration of public assistance programs in market societies, but it is far from clear what they would propose instead. Believing that it takes something to replace something, this article assess two different progressive strategies for eliminating poverty and promoting individual freedom that could serve as replacements for existing public assistance regimes. The first proposal is that all members of society be guaranteed an unconditional basic income without imposing any work requirements in exchange for the benefit. Such a benefit could be provided either in the form of an unconditional grant paid to all members of society (the form preferred by most advocates of the idea) or a negative income tax. Supporters of this strategy have suggested that a basic income guarantee set at or above the poverty level could replace not only the means-tested public assistance regime that is the principal t
