Beyond the New Paternalism Basic Security as Equality

The century of laboring man has come to an end, and yet governments continue to link social entitlements to the performance of labor. This book argues that the era of market regulation has ended in an era of fiscal regulation: new social and economic insecurities have spread around the world, boosted by globalization and flexible labor markets, and compounded by privatization and increased selectivity of social policy. This global insecurity has spawned growing and vastly underestimated inequalities. To overcome these seemingly endemic insecurities and inequalities, Guy Standing argues for a complex egalitarianism, in which basic income security is recognized as a right for all. Work (including voluntary, community and care work), and not labor, must be the basis of a 'good society,' and policies must be judged by their capacity to promote occupational security.

Guy Standing is director of the Socio-Economic Programme of the International Labour Organisation. He directed the ILO’s technical programme in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s and was an advisor to the South African government in 1995–96. He has written extensively on labour market and social policy issues.