AIM Framework glossary
A-Floor Guarantee
Canonical definition
An A-Floor Guarantee is the policy instrument by which a jurisdiction commits to establishing and maintaining Appetitive Floors: the enacted, funded and administered arrangement that supplies Appetitive essentials unconditionally on Status and on Mimetic performance. An A-Floor Guarantee is an instrument rather than a state of affairs, so it is designed, adopted, resourced and repealed, and its adequacy is assessed against the A-Floor Requirement rather than against its own provisions.
Explanation
The A-Floor Guarantee is the term the AIM Framework uses where the subject is institutional design rather than architecture: what a legislature enacts, what a budget funds, what an administration delivers. Three design properties follow from the architecture rather than from policy preference. Provision must be unconditional on comparative standing, or the goods supplied re-enter the M-competitive domain and the A-Floor Requirement is not discharged however large the provision is. Provision must be referenced to the worst-off recipient rather than to a mean, because the A-Floor Requirement is breached by the least-provisioned Individual and not by the average one. And provision must be indexed against the A-Floor Erosion Principle, because an A-Floor Guarantee fixed in nominal terms loses real coverage as the Mimetic Premium raises the cost of A-sufficiency, so an A-Floor Guarantee that was once adequate fails without any provision being withdrawn.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Term.
Derivation
Also in the entry
Distinction from Appetitive Floors. The A-Floor Guarantee is the instrument; Appetitive Floors are what the instrument is for. An A-Floor Guarantee can be enacted and Appetitive Floors still be absent, through inadequate indexation, conditional eligibility, or administrative failure. The AIM Framework states its architectural claims on Appetitive Floors and on the A-Floor Requirement; the A-Floor Guarantee is where those claims meet policy.