ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines a key aspect of the positive potential of democratic theory in addressing poverty and inequality. It argues that a fairly minimalist view of democratic procedures provides compelling grounds for quite specific ways of tackling poverty and inequality. Empirical studies of democratic development support the view that stable, functioning democratic institutions covary with more equal slices of a larger economic cake. Democratic proceduralism is promising in the present context because, when properly understood, it strongly implies a good deal of fundamental policy substance. The chapter includes in the list of unambiguously democratic rights a right to a basic income. A basic income is 'a guaranteed, tax-free amount credited automatically, each week or month, to every man, woman and child as a right of residence - either in cash or as a credit against their income tax - with no distinctions between men and women, married and single, in or out of paid work'.
