An investigation into the reluctance of political leaders regarding universal basic income

Abstract

Background: The article investigates the political leaders’ reluctance to implement Universal Basic Income (UBI). The discussion surrounding UBI has been ongoing for a long period of time. The idea of UBI has been tried and tested in many countries such as Kenya, Namibia, Finland and the Netherlands but mostly by private institutions and non-profit organisations. To date, there has been little or no implementation of UBI despite showing a positive outcome in the countries where it was piloted. The onus and commitment rests with political leaders to drive and influence the implementation of UBI.

Main purpose of the study: The overall aim of this study is to investigate political leaders’ reluctance to implement UBI. According to Martin (2016), UBI is money given to every citizen of the country unconditionally, without any requirements. The money is aimed at addressing social injustices such as poverty and the lack of employment opportunities. Therefore, this study sought to gain an understanding of the factors affecting and influencing the implementation of UBI. Furthermore, to examine the existing current social system in order to determine its impact in delaying the implementation of UBI by political leaders and in addition, to explore the funding model that can be used to finance UBI. Method: The research methodology used in this study is a descriptive qualitative study, done in the form of a systematic literature review and making use of secondary data which is readily available in journal articles. In total 50 academic articles were selected for this study and were analysed using a thematic analysis technique by using the themes extracted from the academic journals.

Findings: The 50 selected academic articles were categorised according to the themes identified and analysed through a thematic analysis. The findings of the research are presented in Chapter 3. The findings reveal that UBI has been researched extensively by numerous authors and the studies were done from various countries’ perspectives, however, with minimal research conducted in African countries. There are many obstacles hindering the implementation of UBI such as being too costly if compared to the current social system and it is difficult to identify the most suitable resources to finance UBI.

Conclusion: UBI has been piloted in many countries, however, there are still delays in the implementation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the reluctance of the political leaders to implement the UBI despite the positive outcome where it was piloted. Lack of adequate sustainable resources to fund UBI hinder the implementation due to it being too costly. Moreover UBI could reduce the labour supply and individuals might become lazy and not be willing to work because of free money. Even though the piloted projects have produced positive results however other authors believed the methodology that was followed was bias as it targeted certain individuals. Therefore, further studies still need to be conducted to ensure that a sustainable implementation of UBI in the future .