Development as FreedomIn Development as Freedom Amartya Sen quotes the eighteenth century poet William Cowper on freedom: Freedom has a thousand charms to show, That slaves howe'er contented, never know. Sen explains how in a world of unprecedented increase in overall opulence, millions of people living in rich and poor countries are still unfree. Even if they are not technically slaves, they are denied elementary freedom and remain imprisoned in one way or another by economic poverty, social deprivation, political tyranny or cultural authoritarianism. The main purpose of development is to spread freedom and its 'thousand charms' to the unfree citizens. Freedom, Sen persuasively argues, is at once the ultimate goal of social and economic arrangements and the most efficient means of realizing general welfare. Social institutions like markets, political parties, legislatures, the judiciary, and the media contribute to development by enhancing individual freedom and are in turn sustained by social values. Values, institutions, development, and freedom are all closely interrelated, and Sen links them together in an elegant analytical framework. By asking "What is the relation between our collective economic wealth and our individual ability to live as we would like?" and by incorporating individual freedom as a social commitment into his analysis, Sen allows economics once again, as it did in the time of Adam Smith, to address the social basis of individual well-being and freedom. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - wealhtheowwylfing - LibraryThingThis is a treatise on the importance of individual freedom, both as an end in itself and as the best means of economic development. It is based on a series of lectures Sen gave in 1996-7, which netted ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - justindtapp - LibraryThingThis was the first book I bought after returning home from two years overseas in 2004. It has traveled with us until now. It's probably best that I didn't read it until recently since I have a much ... Read full review
Contents
Development as Freedom | 3 |
1 The Perspective of freedom | 13 |
2 The ends and the Means of Development | 35 |
3 Freedom and the Foundations of Justice | 54 |
4 Poverty as Capability Deprivation | 87 |
5 Markets States and Social Opportunity | 111 |
6 The Importance of Democracy | 146 |
7 Famines and Other Crises | 160 |
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Common terms and phrases
achieve Adam Smith African Americans agency Amartya Amartya Sen analysis approach argued argument Asia Asian values assessment Bangladesh behavior Cambridge capability capability approach chapter China Clarendon Press commodity context countries crucial cultural democracy democratic deprivation devel Economic Development economic growth edited effects employment Ethics evaluative example fact famines fertility rates food output Friedrich Hayek functioning gender Harvard University Press Human Development human rights Hunger and Public important incentives income India inequality influence interpersonal comparisons involved Irish famines issue Jean Drèze John Rawls Journal justice Kautilya Kerala labor liberty lives London market mechanism Martha Nussbaum ment nomic Oxford University Press particular person perspective political freedoms population poverty presented problem production Public Action public discussion public policy reducing relevant role Social Choice Social Opportunity sub-Saharan Africa substantive freedoms Theory Theory of Justice tion utilitarian utility Welfare well-being women World Bank York
Bibliographic information
| Title | Development as Freedom Oxford India paperbacks |
| Author | Amartya Sen |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press, 1999 |
| ISBN | 0198297580, 9780198297581 |
| Length | 366 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |