Development as Freedom (Hardcover)

by Amartya Sen (Author) "It is not unusual for couples to discuss the possibility of earning more money, but a conversation on this subject from around the eighth century..." (more)
Key Phrases: food countermovement, potential famine victims, capability deprivation, Saharan Africa, Adam Smith, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
When Sen, an Indian-born Cambridge economist, won the 1998 Nobel Prize for Economic Science, he was praised by the Nobel Committee for bringing an "ethical dimension" to a field recently dominated by technical specialists. Sen here argues that open dialogue, civil freedoms and political liberties are prerequisites for sustainable development. He tests his theory with examples ranging from the former Soviet bloc to Africa, but he puts special emphasis on China and India. How does one explain the recent gulf in economic progress between authoritarian yet fast-growing China and democratic, economically laggard India? For Sen, the answer is clear: India, with its massive neglect of public education, basic health care and literacy, was poorly prepared for a widely shared economic expansion; China, on the other hand, having made substantial advances in those areas, was able to capitalize on its market reforms. Yet Sen demolishes the notion that a specific set of "Asian values" exists that might provide a justification for authoritarian regimes. He observes that China's coercive system has contributed to massive famine and that Beijing's compulsory birth control policyAonly one child per familyAhas led to fatal neglect of female children. Though not always easy reading for the layperson, Sen's book is an admirable and persuasive effort to define development not in terms of GDP but in terms of "the real freedoms that people enjoy." (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In his first book since winning the 1998 Nobel Prize for Economics, Sen (Trinity Coll., Cambridge) presents a decent summary of his thought. Advancing development as a method for expanding economicAand thus politicalAfreedom (he sees both as a means and an end) Sen recapitulates his studies of famine, poverty, life expectancy, mortality, and illiteracy in the Third World. A somewhat controversial choice for the Nobel Prize (since his focus on what is called "welfare economics," which makes human welfare central to economic thought, is not universally respected), he employs a strong ethical framework that gives his writing a level of moral authority not common in economic scholarship. Aimed at the intelligent reader, this densely written book is somewhat repetitive and dull, but it comes without the math that usually accompanies economic studies. Recommended for academic libraries and suitable for large public libraries; those that need at least one book by this Nobel laureate could even chose this over Sen's most famous work, Poverty and Famines.APatrick J. Brunet, Western Wisconsin Technical Coll. Lib., La Crosse
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (September 21, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375406190
• ISBN-13: 978-0375406195
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #384,174 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

123 of 130 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Individual freedom finally assigned an economic value, November 25, 1999

By	Craig Hubley (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

Human well-being is the *goal*, not a *side effect*, of social and economic life. This seems to be common sense. But few economists can subtract: no consensus exists on how to account for harms done to man or world, or to human potential discarded. How do we get beyond 'wealth' to understand 'value'?

Sen has a solution. Extending his previous works 'On Ethics and Economics' (1989) and 'Choice, Welfare, and Measurement' (1997), he offers a model of human freedom and free choice as sole measure of value. He restates 'political' and 'ethical' problems as economic ones and measures the negative impact of denying human freedom to choose. For instance, reliance on expensive systems of distribution and mediation, instead of (anarchic) peer relations.

Like Smith and Marx, Sen revisits the assumptions of economic life: why do we work? Why would we put ourselves in positions to endanger ourselves and waste our precious and irreplaceable time on Earth? From his first example, a poor man who was knifed to death for simple lack of freedom to avoid visiting 'a hostile area in troubled times', Sen reminds us that money is worth nothing without time and something to buy that we want more than the time we spent to get it. Escaping the ethical relativism which traps most economists (although, strangely, retaining the moral relativism of human existence and avoiding the 'natural capital' view that there are absolute and transhuman values that humans can ignore, e.g. integrity of DNA/RNA life) he focuses clearly on 'human capital' and how it is liberated through the mechanisms of 'freedom'. Transcends mere structural models such as those of Thurow and Mundell, proposes causal relationships more like those of Herman Wold, Karl Marx and Adam Smith.

A powerful and convincing work by the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics. Possibly the first credible anarchist economist.

(c)1999 Craig Hubley - permission granted to copy without restriction as long as this notice remains

67 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A deep and compassionate book by a wise man, April 28, 2000

By	R. W. Holsbergen (luxembourg, europe) - See all my reviews

When learning economics at university I had "Economics" by Samuelson as a handbook. I learned a lot from it and I still consider it as perhaps the best available introduction into classical economics. On its own ground, this book can hardly be surpassed. But, as many others, I have come to the conclusion that the classical paradigm of economics, which this book reflects, has serious shortcomings. Samuelson fleetingly points out some of them, but he does not pay much attention to this aspect.

Of course, there exists an abundant literature by less orthodox economists in which these questions are discussed at length. Unfortunately, much of this literature is rather unbalanced.

Recently I discovered "Development as Freedom" by Amartya Sen. Finally I found a book that offers a balanced philosophical reflexion on the premises of classical economics and its relevance for the development problem.

Mr. Sen asks questions rarely asked by economist. What purpose does the acquisition of wealth serve? Mr. Sen argues that dire poverty makes people unfree. Wealth is a means to freedom. From that perspective he draws very interesting conclusions concerning development policy.

Classical economics can be a useful tool in understanding society. Samuelson's book is an excellent introduction into this discipline. But in order to put the classical paradigm in perspective, you should also read "Development as Freedom" by Mr. Sen. It is a deep and compassionate book by a wise man.

30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The first Great Book of the 21st Century?, July 17, 2000

By A Customer

Arguably the first great book of the 21st century, Sen bases his case firmly on a clear line of descent from the first great proponent of capitalism, Adam Smith, through to the 'distributive justice' ideas of John Rawls. Sen neither embraces simpistic utilitarianism or Rawls' algorithm of allocation to the worst off. Sen seems to be to echo Karl Popper's dicta of 'piecemeal engineering' and 'reduce needless suffering'. Though Sen is more positive in that injustice must be sought out and corrected, not necessarily according to philosophical formulas or libertarian agendas. Argues that freedom to improve oneself is the highest value, not necessarily income. Shows that this is not just a 'western value' as relativists claim. Sen transcends the tired labels of left and right - a must for any reader concerned about social justice in the modern world.