When reading the survey parallel to the voting results, some interesting patterns appear that ought to be considered. Sitting in front of the data, my biggest question was if there were indications of certain patterns that could be described as “movements” or — at least — as groupings with a strong set of shared interests, beliefs or values that would be more likely to vote for UBI. Three key patterns appeared:

Age Group 55–65

As mentioned earlier, young voters were strongly attracted by the idea of UBI. However, there is a second age group that was more inclined to put a “Yes” into the ballot box. This group is about 10–15 years away from the Swiss standard age for retirement at age 65 (Survey 2, p. 4). There has been a lot of reflection on this particular group lately, as a whole set of research shows low access percentages to the job market. For this group especially, reentering the market of a fast developing economy after being excluded is a major problem. At the same time, day to day politics have mostly been proposing further cuts to pension funds and an increase in the retiring age as a response.

What age groups voted for/against UBI? Yellow No-Voters, blue Yes-Voters. Note: 45–59 years old substantially more Yes-votes. Analyzing age group 55–65 (not in this graphic) were significantly more likely to vote yes.

The state’s retiring scheme is being reformed nearly on a yearly basis. To this age group, Basic Income appears a rather logical step: instead of putting even more pressure on people aged roughly between 55 and 65 by making them find a job, it would make more sense to enable them to concentrate on what they can offer to re-enter a job market, or even outside of such a market. The survey also indicates what that could be: people want to educate themselves to keep up with a continuously developing job market and particularly people in an older age group want to spend more time with their grandchildren (Survey by Demoscope in Dec. 2015, download via www.basicincome2016.org).

Post Materialists

The endorsement of a UBI as being of interest at all of the Swiss Green Party, which is the only established party that supported UBI in the course of the UBI campaign,is evidence of a second pattern: the UBI is in line with the worldview of the post-materialists. Our second survey clearly shows a strong correlation between so called post-materialistic preferences and the political openness to the introduction of UBI (Survey 2, p. 10). This group or movement can be described as the classic mixture of voters affiliated with either the left party or the green party whose political beliefs are traditionally focused on solidarity and pacifism. This group’s political ideas are often descendants of the political movements of 1968 and the environmental movement in the 1980s, but they are not bound to one age group. Overall, 59% of post-materialists voted for UBI.

Avantgarde

The third pattern can be called “globalized individualists,” or simply the “avantgarde” (Survey 2, p. 11). Individuals who can be labeled as the avantgarde typically value migration and new lifestyles in general, and view traditions negatively. In large part, this group is urban. Their work is project-based, and they participate in the so-called “gig-economy.” They can also be referred to as “digital nomads,” but this might only describe part of the pattern. Over half of participants who can be identified as the avantgarde voted “yes” for the UBI policy.

This group might also be the strongest driver for the UBI campaign itself, as many who worked with us identify with this set of values.

Policy for All — Discourse for All