6. Rethinking Redistribution (2003)

This conference in the Real Utopias Project examined two provocative proposals for radical redesigns of redistributive institutions: Universal Basic Income, as elaborated by Philippe van Parijs, and Stakeholder Grants, as elaborated by Bruce Ackerman and Anne Alstott. While both of these proposals contain a range of complex details, they are both based on very simple ideas: In the proposal for Basic Income, every citizen receive a monthly stipend from the state which guarantees them a standard of living at a respectable, no-frills level. In a stakeholder grants proposal, all citizens upon reaching adulthood are given a sizable capital grant sufficient to have a significant asset stake in the society. A set of the papers from this conference appeared as a special issue of the journal Politics & Society in 2003. The entire set constitutes the fifth volume in the Real Utopias project series, Redesigning Distribution (2005)