Book Review: Basic Income: A History, 2021 by Malcolm Torry
| Author | Kristina Koldinská |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/13882627221120515 |
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book Reviews
Malcolm Torry (ed.), Basic Income: A History, 2021, Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham, Northampton,
319 pp.: ISBN 978-1-83910-240-0.
Reviewed by: Kristina Koldinská ,Charles University Prague, Faculty of Law
DOI: 10.1177/13882627221120515
After a long time searching, I have managed to find a comprehensive book written by a single
author. He is, moreover, a very erudite and at the same time courageous author. A year before
Torry brought out his book ‘Basic Income: A History’, the same publisher produced a multidiscip-
linary study by a collective of authors, entitled ‘A Modern Guide to Citizen’s Basic Income’. Torry
refers to this study, even recommending some passages to his readers. However, he himself pro-
vides a clear and comprehensive review of the history of basic income that is unparalleled in the
book market.
Torry’s book takes no position on the policy, treating it as a given fact, and merely provides a
precise and careful analysis of the development of basic income ideas. In the first two chapters he
examines such ideas in the writings of philosophers, later in social debates (Chapter 3), and then in
the legal arrangements of those countries that have, in one way or another, incorporated basic
income into the functioning of their social systems (Chapters 4–8).
In Chapter 5, Torry discusses the development of the idea of basic income in the United
Kingdom, in great detail. This and the previous chapter make it clear to the reader that the idea
of basic income is very closely related to social policy, the fight against poverty and therefore
the quest for social cohesion. Thus, basic income can also take the form, for example, of family
benefits, which are not subject to any income or asset tests.
In contrast, the following chapter focuses on basic income and how it is perceived in the US and
Canada. In the context of the USA, the author distinguishes between Negative Income Tax and
Minimum Income Guarantee and points out that most people, even experts, do not understand
the difference between the two. Torry describes the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend as the cul-
mination of efforts to establish an appropriate basic income.
In Chapter 7, Torry returns to the UK, albeit from a different angle. He uses examples of mis-
interpretations and fake news to show the extreme importance of basic income, and the concept of
social policy in general, for cohesion in society and to help it resist disinformation campaigns that
aim to divide it. I would have placed this chapter after Chapter 5, even though this might have dis-
turbed the chronological line used by the author to structure the whole monograph.
Chapter 8, ‘Multiple Approaches to Basic Income in Continental Europe’, traces the debates on
basic income in selected European countries. In my view, the choice of countries in this chapter is
Book Reviews
European Journal of Social Security
2022, Vol. 24(3) 292–295
© The Author(s) 2022
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