 Our first task, then, is to clarify what a social minimum is. When we speak of a “social minimum” we mean to refer to the bundle of resources that a person needs in order to lead a minimally decent life in their society. Now the members of a society might decide to introduce a set of institutions and policies that secures every member reasonable access to a social minimum in this sense. We shall refer to this set of institutions and policies as a “social minimum policy regime”. In the discussion that follows we shall often speak of “enacting a social minimum”. Enactment is a somewhat legalistic word, but we intend the term to be understood broadly here; “enacting a social minimum” means putting in place a social minimum policy regime. (Strictly speaking, we should perhaps speak of “enacting a social minimum policy regime”; but “enacting a social minimum” is a less clumsy phrase, and these comments should suffice to make clear what we mean by it.) These concepts—of the social minimum and of a social minimum policy regime—are intended to be quite abstract, and they clearly raise further questions. These include: