Rafał Łętocha

Review: Maciej Potz, Teokracje amerykańskie. Źródła i mechanizmy władzy usankcjonowanej religijnie (“American Theocracies. Sources and Mechanisms of Religiously Sanctioned Power”), Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź 2016, 395 pp.

Bishop Stanisław Adamski was one of the most important activists and social thinkers of the Polish Catholic Church of the first half of the 20th century. He devoted the majority of his activity to organizing a cooperative movement and to propagating this kind of solution on Polish soil. For years he fulfilled the function of member of the board, and then chairman of the Union of Earnings and Economic Cooperatives, which was the headquarters of all Polish cooperatives in the Prussian partition. After Poland gained independence he saw in the cooperative movement an excellent way of creating a strong middle class in Poland, the third estate the lack of which had apparently had such an effect on the earlier fortunes of the country. In his work he also emphasised strongly the moral basis and psychological effects of this movement, stressing that it would be favourable to the development of various desired characteristics, attitudes and behaviours, and therefore fulfil an educational role.

A universal basic income is a government guarantee that each citizen receives a minimum income. It is also called a citizen’s income, guaranteed minimum income, or basic income. The intention behind the payment is to provide enough to cover the basic costs of living and provide financial security. The concept has regained popularity as a way to offset job losses caused by technology.The incomes would be unconditional, automatic, non-withdrawable, individual, and considered a right. The main goal of the article was to consider whether the idea of universal basic oncome income is compatible with Catholic social teaching. Opinions on this matter are still divided, and there are no official statements from the Church's Magisterium on this matter.