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Development as Freedom

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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

This book is in reality an argument against relying solely on the market to produce the best outcomes. In the fifties Keynsian thought was triumphant and it was thought that an unrestrained market system would lead to problems. As a result governments had to intervene to ensure demand management and to also deal with problems of structural inequality. In more recent times such an approach has been rejected and any interference with the market is seen as likely to lead to poor outcomes.

Sen suggests that there are a number of reasons for not abdicating completely to the market although acknowledging its importance as the most efficient way of determining the overall use of resources. Sen is an economist who has been concerned with Developing countries for many years. One of his specialities is the phenomena of famines, why they occur and how to prevent them.

This book is really a collection of essays that have a common theme. Sen argues strongly that the provision of certain services in developing nations not just as a means of achieving equity but of achieving development.

The first issue that he canvasses is the importance of democracy. He says that no democratic country has ever had a famine. Even in a country as poor as India it has been possible for governments to prevent famines. To explain the way famines are prevented Sen explains in some detail how they are caused. In 1943 British India suffered a famine in which 3 million people starved to death in Bengal. Oddly enough this was not brought about by a fall in the availability of food but rather by a fall in wages for some groups which led them to not being able to buy food. Sen explains that very modest employment programs have been used by successive Indian governments to prevent this happening again.

Sen then goes on to argue for the importance of the provision of medical services and education in providing freedom and the potential for development. To illustrate this he discusses the death rates and the death rates by sex in various Indian states. The difference between progressive Kerala and Rajastan are instructive.

The book is easy to read and is very interesting .

I had no idea after reading some pretty depressing developing country scenarios in "Development as Freedom" last year, that they would affect my country (Kenya) so powerfully. Famine, one of those degrading human disasters, once again stalks my country to the extent that the President had to appeal for international food aid,how regrettable after 40 years of so-called independence.
As the author candidly points out, famine doesn't occur in countries where citizens have consistent income streams because even if rains fail, food can be imported and purchased. But as usual, in our case, the weather, rather than lack of leadership in economically empowering Kenyans(for instance through food-for-work programmes) was blamed for the famine. Condorcet, a French mathematician, is quoted in the book as saying ..."If they have a duty towards those who are not yet born, that duty is not to give them existence, but to give them happiness."
I would recommend the book to the next occupant of State House and his (or her) administration, because the current administration is too busy figuring out how to contain Raila Odinga rather than efficiently running the country.
PS. I'm aware that "Development as Freedom" is more than just about famine, but I'm too 'hungry' to outline the rest of his ideas,I beg your pardon.

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.

"Development" is usually thought of in terms of poor and agricultural nations becoming wealthier and more industrial. This view of the world has many implications. Helping these developing countries becomes a matter of charity and we wonder what is so wrong with these places that they cannot achieve economic growth and prosperity. And we must consider the question of whether increasing per capita incomes can really make people better off. What if services such as health care and education are sacrificed? If women are discriminated against, and if the citizens cannot vote? It is not adequate to discuss the goals of development in terms of per capita GNP.

Amartya Sen would ask us to view development in the frame of freedoms. The ends of development, he argues, are not wealth or productivity, though these can be instruments to achieve certain freedoms. To see the increase of the well being of others comprehensively, we must understand how "well being" is achieved and focus on increasing the freedoms of people. These freedoms include political, social, and economic freedoms and they tend to reinforce each other. Making people better off requires that policy makers keep these goals in mind.

Sen's book is an articulate, fully developed argument. It is a mixture of economics and philosophy and it is written for a layman, without condescension. That is, it may still be a little difficult to read if you aren't used to academic writing. Those who finish this book, however, may end up seeing development, freedom, and social justice in a fresh and hopeful way.

Amartya Sen clearly has a bone to pick with the dominant, economic growth-driven explanation for "development," as represented in such fashionable works as Robert Kaplan's "The Coming Anarchy." Kaplan, as a big admirer of Sen's theoretical arch-enemy, Lee of Singapore, writes that "If Singapore's 2.8 million citizens ever demand democracy, they will just prove the assertion that prosperous middle classes arise under authoritarian regimes before gaining the confidence to dislodge their benefactors" (77). The obvious implication of this statement is that prosperous middle classes can only "develop" under authoritarian regimes, and in the meantime they cannot afford the luxury of having "confidence" in their own freedoms. And since all too many contemporary scholars and policymakers subscribe to this view, Amartya Sen has made it his job to detail how and why development actually has a better chance of arising under democracy than under authoritarianism, and why developing-world citizens should have "confidence" in freedom's value, regardless of their economic situation.

But what is freedom's value, to Sen? Not only does it have normative and intrinsic importance as a social good, but it also has an instrumental or "consequential" role that provides political incentives for economic security (thus helping the operation of the market and leading to economic development), as well as having a constructive role in the "genesis of values and priorities," which is the kind of substantive, social development that Sen sees as an essential companion to economic growth. This development is conceptualized as the five benefits of freedom: political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, and protective security.

As an economist, Sen does not, of course, neglect the role of the economy in the freedom/development causal process. On the contrary, Sen makes use of Adam Smith for his own purposes, though admittedly giving Smith a more "social" spin than most neoclassical economists by focusing on Smith's views of education, political freedoms, and the social context of the market. Sen accuses Smith's followers of myopically focusing on technocratic economic incentives for "development" and therefore being blind to the kind of "political incentives" that freedom can provide to a developing nation. Deftly using the Asian examples often touted by his foes, Sen argues that Japan, South Korea, etc. made large investments in social opportunity freedoms like literacy and health care before their economies boomed. In other words, sociopolitical development precedes economic development, and not the other way around.

Theoretically, Sen formulates a kind of modified, "deepened" rational choice theory, arguing that a truly rational social choice depends on an adequate "informational base" in society, which only his five benefits of freedom can provide. This use of the incentive-based rational language of orthodox economics makes Sen's critique of authoritarianism all the stronger, showing why a lack of freedoms might impede the workings of the market (by limiting the information available to rational choosers), despite the best-intentioned, purely economic incentives that might be given to an unfree population.

The bulk of Sen's evidence comes from political theory, economics and personal knowledge. Much of his causal process-tracing lacks step-by-step empirical illustrations for each link, being that this is not exclusively a work of social science, but the book as a whole is inconsistently rich with empirical justification. Indeed, it cites liberally from a large body of literature, and also draws upon a great deal of quantitative indicators for development, tracing such factors as life expectancy, GDP, infant mortality, gender disparities, and literacy rates.

The easiest critique of Sen's work is that it is nothing more than a nobly futile plea to the development policymakers and corporate players; a plea that will most likely cause them to nod their heads, say "yes, he's right, that sounds great . . . that's the way it should be," but then to push ahead anyway with their technocratic, economics-based sidestepping of the role of freedom in development. Indeed, when one discovers that "Development as Freedom" has been lauded by such influential figures as the World Bank President and "Business Week" Magazine, then one immediately suspects that something is wrong. If the World Bank and global corporate elites agree with Sen, then why aren't they pushing his recommendations more aggressively? The answer is that most development players have an interest in keeping Sen's freedoms at bay. Sen might argue that these players need to read his book and realize that their objective, long-term interests actually lie in pushing freedoms (longer life, healthcare, education, etc.), but the immediate pursuit of such freedoms is a hard sell to the struggling factory owner or the finance minister under pressure from the IMF. Long-term interests have rarely figured into the real, ground-level process of market-driven development, and there's no reason to expect that this unfortunate state can be changed anytime soon. Development is driven by multinational corporations who favor a "liberal" investment climate made up of fiscal restraint, a restraint that tends (in practice) to divert resources and attention from the kinds of freedoms that Sen proposes.

Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen strikes a beautiful balance here between socialists, who have their hearts in the right place but refuse to accept that the market is the best way to help people, and libertarians who believe in freedom but don't acknowledge that being poor limits your freedom as well. Hailing from India, Sen's focus is on development economics with a view on helping the world's poorest.

At the centerpiece of Sen's philosophy is freedom: He believe that freedom of action and life is the most fundamental human right. His philosophy comes very close to the "Four Freedoms" articulation of FDR in that he believes both in active freedoms (of labor and exchange, for example) as well as freedom from want, which can be brought about by state assistance. In addition, he also believes that giving people freedom is the best way to bring about progress: hence the title, development as freedom.

Some sections of the book read as economics, some read as political philosophy, and some read as a modern history. Sen explains why there has never been a famine in any functioning democracy, even though some of them have been among the poorest nations on Earth. He also advocates convincingly for the education and emancipation of women.

So far I have only good things to say about this book, but I didn't really enjoy reading it and only got through it because I was on a transatlantic flight. Why? Simply put, the writing in the book is painful. Not second-language painful: Sen clearly masters the English language, has an extensive vocabulary and is comfortable with his subject matter. The problem is that the writing is too obtuse: adverbs and obscure words abound, phrases drag on and it's sometimes difficult even for an absorbed reader to figure out what exactly is being said. One simple example: "But while the causal relation is indeed significant, the vindication of freedoms and rights provided by the causal linkage is over and above the directly constitutive role of these freedoms in development." Such sentences abound.

No argumentative book is perfect, and I sometime disagreed with Sen's arguments such as when he attacked utilitarianism. Overall, however, Sen has put together a coherent economic philosophy that focuses on results and seems to be in line with what works in the real world. If you can get through the heavy, opaque writing, then there are great insights to be gleaned from this book.

What is economic development? This book argues that economic development is the expansion of human choice; i.e. freedom and capability to do what we want. The emphasis of this books is the duality: freedom and capability. Hence a society can give freedom to its citizens, but if they are not equipped with the mental and/or physical capabilities to use these freedoms, then the freedoms can be meaningless. Therefore, investing in education, providing health care, equal rights and other social programs that improve the capabilities of individuals are often as important to economic progress as building roads, airports and starting up businesses.

The Indian, Nobel-prize winning author of this book backs up this argument with empirical evidence from multiple countries and time periods across the world, with special emphasis on China, India, and other locales in Asia that one might not normally consider as textbook examples of economic development. By comparing specific actions taken by specific governments, the author shows how personal development, in terms of increasing literacy, providing family planning services, and spreading basic health care are often the prerequisite for economic development for a society as a whole. The book backs this up with examples of Japan, Korea, and the US itself; three countries where industrialization and economic growth came after social reform, the spread of basic education, and equalization of rights between genders.

Overall this is a great book. It connects economic policy to human actions, and shows how government policies connect the two. Great reading and highly recommended for all those interested in the social sciences.

I read this book because Sen had written the preface to one of my favourite books, Paul Farmer's "Pathologies of Power." I had absolutely no knowledge of economics when I went into this book, but a friend assured me that it was very accessible. It was fairly accessible: but perhaps my ignorance was just extreme. There were a few terms that I had to google, but overall it was a good introduction to some economic theories.

As to the economic theories themselves: just plain brilliant. Who says that economists have no common sense? This book just made complete and utter... sense! I just sat there shaking my head, because sentence after sentence was phrased in just a way to make it so obvious that I wondered why I had never thought of it... and why those who have the power to listen to this book don't do something about it.

I recomend this book to anyone who is interested in the state and the future of developing economies. Frankly, this should cover everyone who lives in North America and Western Europe because (as Sen shows) what affects horribly impoverished people on the other side of the globe affects us too. No knowledge of economics is required (though you might find Google helpful ;-) ), but an open mind and a modicum of common sense is necessary.

Amartya Sen, winner of 1998 Noble Prize in Economic Science, in this book, not only turns decades of economics on its head by arguing that economic development and individual freedom should go hand-in-hand, to counter poverty, but also lambastes Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew's "Asian Values thesis", also known as "the Lee thesis", that promotes economic development at the expense of freedom in the initial stage of development.

In a clear departure from the main stream of economic thoughts that concern with achieving economic well-being for individuals, Sen, however, contends that freedom of individuals - economic and political freedom and civil liberties, should not be divorced from economic well-being. In fact, he believes freedom should be the principal goal of economic development as well as as the principal mean to counter poverty and insecurity. Freedom and development, rather than being hostile to each other, actually reinforce and complement one another to achieve economic prosperity and ultimately freedom for all. Democracy is not a luxury whereby only rich or developed nations can splurge, but should be seen as an end per se as well as a guiding force to foster and promote economic development and individual freedom.

Clearly, Sen is up against most economists who confine themselves to only measuring individual well-being in economic terms like GDP per capita and neglect the non-economic factors like freedom of speech and press freedom. Sen, instead, attaches great importance to freedom. He believes the goal of achieving freedom need no justification and every society should also work towards achieving it regardless of whether it promotes economic development.

The book on the whole provides much insights to what we usually known as economic development and how we should see it in the light of freedom for individuals. Though I may not totally agree with his analysis, I am sure that I will not see the issue of development and freedom the same as before.