Universal proposals of income distribution: a normative revision

the idea of guarantying an unconditional and universal income to each member of the political community is rooted in thomas paine and joseph charlier writings some centuries ago. in recent years, the debate on this topic has been renewed. among the recent initiatives, the mostly spread ones have been the universal basic income mainly developed by philippe van parijs and the capital grants proposal elaborated by bruce ackerman and anne alstott. these two redistributive proposals present many coincidences and differences, both in the normative and factual area. this article contains a strictly normative analysis of both proposals, mainly concentrated in their key objectives. these two initiatives have been mainly conceived as normative programs aiming to improve freedom, justice and equality between individuals. the purpose of this article is to develop some arguments to uncover the main problems and weaknesses that the two proposals show when trying to meet their goals.