ABSTRACT
In 1984 a small group of individuals interested in the possibility of integrating the tax and benefit systems along social dividend lines, came together under the auspices of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and set up the Basic Income Research Group (BIRG). In 1986, BIRG affiliated to the Basic Income European Network, which was founded at the international conference on basic income, at the University of Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, in September 1986. A partial basic income is based on the same principles as full basic income, but the income guarantee is smaller, necessitating retention of some proof-of-need benefits and perhaps some income tax reliefs. In Denmark, for instance, physicist Niels Meyer, whose 1978 book Revolt from the Centre sold over 100,000 copies, recognises that "it is very difficult to introduce a basic income in a society with large unemployment and a high degree of economic inequality".
