by Peter Knight

 

“Book Review

European Journal of Social Security

1–2

© The Author(s) 2025 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions journals.sagepub.com/home/ejs

Malcolm Torry, Unconditional: Towards unconditionality in social policy, Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham, UK, Northampton, MA, USA, 2024; 271 pp.: ISBN 978 1 0353 1324 2

Reviewed by: Primož Rataj , University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

DOI: 10.1177/13882627251355169

The author of Unconditional: Towards unconditionality in social policy is Malcolm Torry, an expert in the field of social policy, on which he worked, at various institutions, for the last 40 years of his professional career. In the author’s words, this is the last social policy book that he planned to write; it builds on his previous books on basic income, also published by Edward Elgar Publishing, such as A modern guide to citizen’s basic income: A multidisciplinary approach (2020), Basic income: A history (2021) and A research agenda for basic income (2023).

The book focuses on discussions around the meaning of unconditionality in social policy, with a specific emphasis on unconditional basic income (for every individual). It explores the what is meant by the term ‘unconditional’, examines how a social policy characterised by unconditionality might fit into the spectrum of welfare state regimes, outlines what philosophers have said about the possibility of unconditional giving, but above all provides arguments for and against uncondition- ality. It does so by giving a brief history of unconditionality, then discussing why and how this phe- nomenon works, its ethics, and the prospects of an unconditionality regime replacing neoliberalism. All of this is done in 12 chapters, or 226 pages, but in essence the book is really about a single word – ‘unconditional’: its meaning, how it applies to social policy at present but also how it might apply in the future. The author remarks that the book needed to be written, as to his knowledge there was no book specifically about unconditionality, and because a new social policy regime is desperately needed (in the United Kingdom).

After this brief presentation of the book, some qualitative aspects follow. Firstly, most of the book’s chapters are based on the author’s previous publications, which are clearly referred to at the beginning of each chapter. Since the chapters sometimes touch upon similar issues, the text of the book is repetitive at times, but readers are warned about this. The author wished to write each chapter as a complete unit, so that readers would not need to have read the previous chapters to grasp the content: the trade-off has been carefully considered.

The book takes as its general starting point the situation in the UK, where the author is based, and the majority of the examples provided relate to this country, for reasons of familiarity and accuracy. Practical examples are a strength of the book, as the author vividly provides a plethora of these throughout, relating to the various aspects addressed, helping the reader to compare and imagine analogous perspectives. He has nonetheless provided a substantial body of theoretical lines of thought, and the examples are really there to explain the theory. This is, on the whole, necessary,

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as the notion of a (universal) basic income is to this day still largely theoretical. The author outlines its advantages and the impressive results of cases where limited attempts have been made to achieve such a system (with astonishing findings, for example, from pilot project(s) in Namibia and India, (pp. 193-194). The author provides many arguments as to why a basic income scheme would be desirable: improvements in tackling poverty and unemployment traps, reduced stigma and shame connected to means-testing, reduced inequality, greater stability, administrative simplicity, enhanced social inclusion, social mobility and social cohesion, transparency, etc. He looks to existing unconditional schemes to back his arguments, such as healthcare and education.

The author additionally seeks to debunk arguments against, or perhaps stereotypes linked to, such a basic income scheme. Often these are expressed in phrases such as: ‘We simply can’t do it’; ‘People won’t understand it’; ‘There are problems that unconditional incomes and services would not resolve’; ‘Unconditional income could make poor people poorer’; ‘Such schemes spend scarce public money on people who do not need it’; ‘It is too low to make a difference’; ‘Why would people then bother to work?’, etc. It ’s crucial to note, for instance, that: ‘it is the present system that encourages idleness because it pays unemployed people only as long as they do nothing, and it penalizes them by withdrawing their benefits if they take part-time employment or start a small business’ (p. 157). An unconditional basic income would continue to be paid as incomes rose, so it would always be worth earning more. Secondly, any kind of (prospective) evalu- ation of an unconditional basic income scheme depends on the precise details of implementation, with unpredictable short-term or long-term effects. It does not, moreover, seem worthwhile to create a new basic income system if the amount is very low; a significant amount, however, although below subsistence level, could have important effects.

The author emphasises the importance of each reader evaluating the arguments subjectively, since he acknowledges that current social policy has not yet organised an unconditional basic income, although it might do so at some point in the future. To achieve this, members of society need to start thinking about the issue, to understand and see its positive sides and possibly slowly change their minds. If a minority does this, a majority may, over time, come to back the idea. In this respect the book is an important step towards, perhaps, ‘getting the message across’ to readers.

The book is important because of its undeniable quality. It is well written, systematically structured and the thought process is easy to follow. Each chapter comes with a substantial list of cited literature for anyone who wishes to research further on the topic. An especially relevant point is that the author has published extensively on the topic, has worked on social policy (also as a practitioner) for four decades and has given the issue serious thought. As his last book in this field, it summarises the discussion on unconditionality or on an unconditional basic income. Due to the variety of questions addressed, not all of the chapters may be relevant to each reader, but it is pre- cisely this variety that makes it a compelling book for a wide range of potential readers. The book is strongly recommended at least for social policymakers, sociologists, philosophers, perhaps even (legal) academics or anyone else genuinely interested in (un)conditionality of social policy.”

The book is available as a paperback. https://torry.org.uk/basic-income