Table of Contents
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Democratic Sovereignty: A Background
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Historical Basis for Universal Income Systems
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The power of Kings
and Magistrates is nothing else but what is only derivative, transferr’d and
committed to them in trust from the People, to the Common good of them all, in
whom the power yet remaines fundamentally, and cannot be tak’n from them,
without a violation of thir natural birthright.
JOHN MILTON (1608–74), “The Tenure of Kings,”
The Works of John
Milton, vol. 5, p. 10 (1932).
Democratic Sovereignty:
A Background
(This section
is exerpted from the book Universal
Income For a Sustainable Future by Patrick Danahey)
"What greater equality can there be in a city, [but]
where the people are the absolute rulers [sovereigns] of the land?" a
justification by the people for their system of the governance of Argos prior
to 600 BC to foreign proponents of monarchic views (Euripides, 25.).
Museum at Agora -
Athens, Greece. Title:
Law Protecting Democracy (337-336) BC.
Passed soon after the Athenian Loss to Philip II of Macedonia at Chaironeia
(338 BC). The relief depicts the personified democracy crowning the
seated Demos (people). [Copyright
c.e.r.e.s. 2000 Photo by Patrick Danahey] |
Almost throughout the entire corpus of western literature that forms the
backbone to university liberal arts programmes one can find this constant
cyclical struggle between humanity alternating as the sovereign governing body
of its institutions versus it being enslaved to its institutions via some
minority ruling power:
For from Plato and philosophy I had learned this lesson that certain
revolutions are natural to all republics, which alternately come under the
power of monarchs, democracies, and aristocracies (Cicero 26).
When the sovereignty of the people themselves is thus realised the republic
is established; and it is no longer necessary to give up the reins of
government to those by whom they…might again destroy all the new
institutions by their arbitrary and absolute will ( Kant 27).
It is not so much the physical structure or the labels used to
describe it that determines where the power lies within a society (i.e. just
because the majority of people label their government a democracy doesn't mean
that it is. Or if a government was a democracy two years ago it doesn't mean
that it still is today even though everyone is still performing the same
rituals.); but rather, it is revealed in the daily operations, perceptions,
priorities, and values of intrinsic worth of the people within that society.
James Frazer in his monumental cultural anthropological work of the 12 volume
series the Golden Bough documents at length, from around the world,
various stages of the sacred kingship. In them we find that designated or
representative kings comprised, in many cases, the lowest status attainable
within those societies to the point where no one wanted to be king. Quite
frequently kings had to be imported from other tribes. To take two examples:
…in Cambodia it is often necessary to force the kingships of Fire and
Water upon the reluctant successors and in the Savage Island the monarchy
actually came to an end because at last no one could be induced to accept the
dangerous distinction (Frazer 28).
The concept of sovereignty has played a central role to all of our
major religions. Whether it be the feminine Shekhinah of the Jewish faith, the
flaith na Erinne of the early Irish or Celtic religions, the Den of the Magi,
the sacred queen/king of the early matriarchal cultures, or the enlightenment
of Buddhism, Hinduism, and early Christianity. The Maori are also
rediscovering this meaning in their Tino Rangatiratanga.
Traditionally, all
cultures can trace a common religious link to their inherited sovereignty via
variations of the cult of the "Cosmic Centre" (e.g. the tree cult).
People would, at their various sacred festivals, all wear crowns of leaves
demonstrating their shared sovereignty and their oneness with the "Cosmic
Tree". Remnants of this practice can be found throughout the indigenous
cultures of the South Pacific, North/South American Indian, African, and
Australasian cultures as well as the traditional literature and arts of the
European and Asiatic cultures. Many people still put up Christmas trees as
their ancestors did long ago. A key principle to this system, which can still
be found in the early sacred texts, was the idea that we are all connected to
the great Cosmic Tree, which is the central hub of the universe. All the
changing forms and names that we experience in our world, within and without
us, are the changing leaves of the Tree or our different institutional roles.
All that animates the changing aspects of our world is the eternal aspect of
the Tree: the sovereignty. For example an artist may see a stone from a design
perspective and a mason may see the stone from a utilitarian perspective, yet
the stone in itself transcends all perspectives. The task then, as it is now,
albeit in a slightly different form, is to maintain our true identity with our
sovereignty (as opposed to our institutional roles) to effect a healthy
sustainable relationship with our institutions as it relates to our
environment and ourselves.
One need not think that we must go back to our
traditional cultural roots in order to embrace a Universal Income or to
understand our place in the role of shared sovereignty. A study of our past
can certainly help us better understand who we are today, allow us to learn
from mistakes, assimilate accrued wisdom, and appreciate the similarities and
differences that we share with all the people of the world. It will also help
us be more adaptable, understanding and accommodating of new ideas, cultures,
people and individual differences. Today many people are capable of seeing
that all people and cultures are equals in status and importance while
appreciating that everyone brings unique gifts to this world that defines
their important differences as well. The adoption and acceptance of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights across the planet as a standard proves
this common link between the major religions, cultural groups, races,
countries, political persuasions, individuals and so forth.
Universal Income Systems find their basis from the principle of common
stewardship of the land as derived from the early land laws. This was basic to
almost all indigenous societies. Everyone had unconditional rights to the land
and its resources relative to their individual needs. Some samples include, the
idea of land rotation being practised up until the late 1800s in Argyllshire
Scotland. This was the early practice of regularly redistributing the land to
everyone so that everyone had enough land on which to live. It was the basis of
equal sovereignty and one's individual power as well. This system probably finds
its origins in the early matriarchal phratry structure. The jubilee year in the
traditional judaic system (every 50 years) also included regular land
redistribution and the clearing of all debts. No one would be continually
allowed to stay in debt.
The God of the Old Testament recognised by Christianity, Judaism, and Islam
states as follows:
Leviticus 25:10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and
proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it
shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession,
and ye shall return every man unto his family.
God of the Old Testament also says:
Leviticus 25:23 The land shall not be sold for
ever: for the land is mine, for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
The New Testament like the vast array of many other
traditional belief systems recognised that Divinity lives as well with the most
oppressed. For among many other reasons, it is a way of testing the integrity
and development of the more advantaged.
MT 25:41-25:45
25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the
left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the
devil and his angels:
25:42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no
meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
25:43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in:
naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
25:44 Then shall they also answer him, saying,
Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or
sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
25:45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily
I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did
it not to me.
Plato; Laws 5.v.
There "should exist among the citizens
neither extreme poverty, nor, again, excess of wealth, for both are productive
of both these evils".
Let the citizens...distribute their land and
houses...and seeing that the earth is their parent, let
them tend her more carefully than children do their mother.
The Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu (P. 119; Par. 77.2; 32)
states that...
It is the Way of Heaven to diminish
superabundance, and to supplement deficiency.
Many Native American tribes from the Northwest of the continent
still celebrate remnants of an ancient redistribution festival referred to as
the Potlatch festival. Wealth and status was measured by how much one gives
rather than how much one has.
In the Pacific Islands many of the indigenous cultures held deeply imprinted values of sharing
the wealth with the rest of society as well as valuing liberality over meanness.
It must also be emphasised that these natives, and more especially the
Trobrianders, have both a word for, and a clear idea of, barter (gimwali), and
that they are fully aware of the difference between the transactions at the
Kula and common Barter. The Kula involves the elements of trust and of a sort
of commercial honour, as the equivalence between gift and counter-gift cannot
be strictly enforced. As in many other native transactions, the main
corrective force is supplied by the deeply engrained idea that liberality is
the most important and the most honourable virtue, whereas meanness brings
shame and opprobrium upon the miser (Malinowski 29).
Thomas Paine in his Rights of Man (1792) advocated a universal wage
that he called the "National Fund". It was land rent based. His
argument was that any person, who had private property to the exclusion of
others having an unconditional right to their land, had not paid enough. I.e.
they stole it!
John Stuart Mill advocated a type of Universal Income in his monumental work The Principles of Political Economy.
It is "highly desirable, that the certainty of subsistence should be held
out by law to the destitute able-bodied,..."
During his anti-war campaign, the Nobel prize winning philosopher and scientist
Bertrand Russell advocated a form of Universal Income System that he referred to
as an artisans wage that would be allocated to everyone. (30).
The concept of a national dividend in various forms has been a part of
serious election campaign platforms since the Great Depression. Huey Long, whose
popularity helped win Roosevelt's election to administer the socialised
"New Deal" programme in America, was a great advocate of the Universal
Income. Many people at that time thought that they were voting for a Universal
Income when they voted for Franklin D. Roosevelt since that was the primary
Democratic campaign promoted. In 1972 it reached its most generous culmination
with the Nobel laureate economist James Tobin’s "Demogrant" as part
of George McGovern’s Democratic election campaign. Unfortunately he lost to
Richard Nixon, who also had a limited type of Universal Income platform
(although quite meaner in amounts) that lost in the Senate.
Michael Joseph Savage’s Labour government created the social welfare state
which led New Zealand out of the great depression of the 1930s. Many of the
driving forces for social change at that time were from the social credit
movement.
R. Buckminster Fuller, with 47 doctorate degrees, announced to the world that
there was enough wealth to turn the four billion people on this planet into
billionnaires (Critical Paths P 200-201, p222 31).
In 1968 families were being enrolled in one of the largest studies performed
on a universal income as part of Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty
programme in the USA. Sadly the war in Vietnam overshadowed the programme, its
motivation, and results.
On June 4, 1974 , Canada and Manitoba agreed to conduct a Guaranteed Annual
Income (GAI) experiment —subsequently called Mincome. It lasted until 1979.The
type of funding model that was used to allocate the universal income was based
on a negative income tax. Much of the emphasis on the study was to find out its
effects on work incentives. I.e. Would people quit working? On the whole, the
research results were encouraging to those who favour a GAI. The reduction in
work effort was modest: about one per cent for men, three per cent for wives,
and five per cent for unmarried women. Given the small effect on work
incentives, the onus of proof has shifted back to those who argue that a GAI
would lead to an "excessive" work disincentive response. Even though
the experiment was quite successful the attitudes and values of the government
of the day was more focussed on issues such as the oil crisis and the idea was
simply forgotten.
Note, this experiment, as well as the United States one cited
previously, illustrates the importance of the income being allocated as a
right and not just an economic privilege, charity, or handout. If it is not
allocated as a right the income can be taken away at any time for any reason.
Richard Nixon's Family Assistance Plan almost became law. Its architect,
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, made no bones about the cynicism of its motivation:
paying people not to work is cheaper than job creation schemes, and buying off
violence is cheaper than suppressing it.
The European Social Charter is a European treaty signed in Turin in 1961
which protects fundamental social and economic rights. The Charter guarantees
these rights to the citizens of its Contracting Parties. It is now in force in
twenty one European states: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, the
Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom. In
addition, the following states have signed but not yet ratified the Charter: the
Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Switzerland and Ukraine.
The member states of the Council of Europe consider that
civil and political rights and social and economic rights are interdependent,
and that together they form an inseparable group of principles upon which
European democracies are founded.
Some mid eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia share all of
their wealth amongst their "citizens". All "citizens" in Saudi Arabia are rich by NZ
standards. Unfortunately they do not share it with their permanent residents.
Scandinavian countries like Norway that have an unconditional unemployment benefit system, i.e.
no compulsory work requirement, have healthier economies, including free
education and health with less poverty than most other countries on the planet.
See W.I.S.P.
studies and the United
Nations Human Develpment Reports.
Many regions in New Zealand during the late 1980s, up until
the Employment Contracts Act had an undeclared "unconditional unemployment
benefit" throughout the majority of the country. The country has a higher
unemployment rate now, with compulsory labour, than it did then.
Porto Alegre Brazil in 1990, the Capital of the State of Rio
Grande do Sul with a population in excess of a million people, establishes a
ground breaking successful participatory democratic structure. It is a system
that puts budgetary decisions in the hands of the public. The system is
inclusive of the city’s poor. In short, citizens from neighborhoods decide
what they need most—like affordable housing, paved roads, sewage, sanitation
services, and good schools—then meet with government engineers and municipal
officials to see if the project is feasible. A citizens’ council consisting of
delegates from the city’s various districts then assigns each project a
numerical value based on criteria such as need or population amount, and doles
out money accordingly. The council has ultimate decision-making power on
budgetary issues. With this system, the city has been able to refocus city
council’s traditional preferences to provide money strictly to wealthy roading
companies and the like and redistribute the income to the areas of the greatest
need of the people. They have been able to install sewer and drainage
services to the poor as well as develop schools and enhance the overall
infrastructure for the community at large. (See Porto
Alegre's 10 year experience with particapatory democracy.)
During
the Second Semester of 1999, the Brazilian National Congress set up a Special
Commission to Study Social Inequalities and Proposals for Eradicating Poverty.
In December 1999, the Commission unanimously approved the following conclusion:
"that the Brazilian government should endeavour, in the relevant
multilateral forums, to bring about international mechanisms, such as the James
Tobin Tax on International Financial Transactions, so as to guarantee, in all
nations, the establishment of a basic income as a citizen's right to all
inhabitants of the Earth." (The full report was published as Comissão
mista especial destinada a estudiar as causas estructurais e conjunturais das
desigualdades sociais e apresentar soluçoes legislativas para erradicar a
probreza e marginalização e reduzir as desigualdades sociais e regionais,
Relatório final, Brasilia: Congresso Nacional, 1999, 130p.)
In September 2002, the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
sponsored their first BIEN conference with the theme of linking international
human rights laws with the concept of a Basic Income. The Basic Income European Network (BIEN) including 19 member
countries links the International Bill of Human Rights with the philosophy of a
Basic Income.
A basic income is in fact affordable; it's a matter of
priorities and commitment," Guy Standing, (co chair of BIEN also director
of the socioeconomic security programme at the ILO), said yesterday, noting
that the "right to an adequate income was enshrined in the United
Nations' universal declaration of human rights. Surveys
in countries as varied as Finland, Argentina, China and Russia demonstrated
majority support for the idea". (33)
_ A two-day conference opened at the
International Labour Organisation here [Geneva] on Thursday to examine the
growing popularity of the idea of a basic income for all. The organisers,
Basic Income European Network (BIEN), a group of policymakers, economists and
researchers, are trying to secure the establishment of an across the board
basic income as an economic right.(34)
In September 2002, the Irish Government released its
official Green Paper study on the Irish basic income proposal presented by the
Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI). The Green Paper shows that a Basic
Income system would have a substantial impact on the distribution of income in
Ireland in that, compared with the present tax and welfare system it would
improve the incomes of 70% of households in the bottom four deciles (i.e. the
four tenths of the population with lowest incomes) and raise half of the
individuals that would be below the 40% poverty line under 'conventional'
options above this poverty line. According to the Green Paper, these impacts
would be achieved without any resources additional to those available to
'conventional' options. The Green Paper shows that a Basic Income system is far
more effective at tackling poverty than the present tax/welfare system and
should form part of a comprehensive strategy to totally eliminate income poverty
in the years immediately ahead.
There is an international Green Party network that supports a
Universal Income as part of their shared platforms.
Nobel laureates in economics from both left and right-wing
perspectives have advocated it. Jan Tinbergen (major developer of modern
macro-economic theory), James Mead, Milton Friedman (right-wing monetarist
guru), and James Tobin (left-wing economist, author of the "Tobin
Tax"--a financial transaction tax aimed at controlling unbridled
"speculation"--as well as the "Demogrant"), and Herbert A.
Simon.
Presently, Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend distributes a
minimum income to all Alaskan residents from the profits of oil reserves. It
started for most residents in 1982.
January, 2004
BRAZIL: CITIZEN'S INCOME SIGNED INTO LAW BY PRESIDENT LULA
This is meant to be gradually implemented beginning in 2005. See News
Update for more details.
The National Council of Women passed a remit to investigate a basic income,
many of which comply as Universal Income Systems.
The Women’s Division of Federated Farmers support the investigation of a
type of Universal Income.
The Department of Social Welfare in the 1990s agreed to support an
investigation into a basic income.
The South Island Maori Anglican Church Amorangi Hui came to a consensus on a
decision that would bring the concept of Universal Income Systems to the
national Te Runanganui on the North Island for the consideration towards a
formal investigation of its merits. The follow-up to that has been successfully
realised. At their national conference in 2002 Te Runanganui o Te Pihopatanga o
Aotearoa the Maori Anglican resolved the following:
1) That Te Pihopatanga investigates Universal Income Systems to determine
whether such a system should be sought as a policy for this nation.
2) And that Te Runanga Whaiti appoints a working party on this matter.
The NZ Council of Trade Unions’ submission to the New Zealand 2001 Tax
Review advocated the investigation of a type of Universal Income System:
The Tax Review should examine the merits of proposals for a universal basic
income. There has been a good deal written on this subject in recent years and
it involves a different conceptual approach to taxation and rights of
citizenship.
The formation of Universal Basic Income New Zealand (UBINZ) in the 1990s has
led to two national conferences on universal basic income in New Zealand.
In the early 1990s the Unconditional Universal Income (UUI) Action NZ group
formed on the South Island of Aotearoa NZ. Its focus was on using human rights
laws as minimum standards for the concept of basic income. As a right, the
unconditionality meant that the income could not be taken away from people. The
use of the legal human rights parameters meant a commitment to recognised
standards for both horizontal and vertical equity of the proposals. The works of
this group helped to form the
basis for the development of the Universal Income Trust.
The formation of the Universal Income Trust in 1998 linked human rights laws
and standards to the concept of basic income. It sponsored in Nelson, NZ a
festival for the 50th anniversary for the Declaration of Human Rights. It
brought in dignitaries from the United Nations, the Waitangi Tribunal, local Iwi
and over 200 performers, dances, community stalls and workshops including the
late Colin Aikman--the original signatory for Aotearoa NZ of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. Some of its members also went on a world tour
promoting internationally Universal Income Systems: the links between economic
rights laws and basic income systems. As a result of the tour and a diverse
array of international efforts by other individuals and organisations, the links
between human rights and the basic income movement are finally being forged on
an international level, as demonstrated by the theme of the last BIEN conference
in September 2002 sponsored by the International Labour Organisation
See Events page for more of UIT's historical through
current activities and other achievments.
25. Euripides, (480-406
BC) The Suppliants
26. Cicero (50 BC),
On
Divination Bk.2.
27. Kant,
The Science
of Right, ch.52.
28.
Frazer, J., "The Burden of Royalty", The Golden Bough,
p.232.
29.
B. Malinowski, "Melanesia," People's and Cultures of the
Pacific An Anthropological Reader, Andrew P. Vayda, editor, The Natural
History Press, 1968 Garden City New York, p. 412.
30.
Russell, Bertrand, Proposed Roads to Freedom, ch iv, vii
31.
R. Buckminster Fuller, Critical Path,
32.
The Sacred Books of the East; translated by various Oriental
scholars and edited by F. Max Müller; Vol. XXXIX; The Texts of Taoism;
Translated by James Legge; The Tâo Teh King (Tâo Te Ching) of Lâo Dze
(Lao Tsu) 600 BC
33.*Income
guarantee proposal 'feasible'
; By Frances Williams in Geneva
Financial Times; Sep 13, 2002
34.
Conference pushes basic income for all as affordable right;
12 September 2002; Agence France_Presse English;(Copyright 2002); GENEVA,
Sept 12 (AFP)
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