Development as Freedom.Amartya Sen. NY: Random House, 2000.
By Tom Mangham, MBA Graduate Student
Amartya Sen's concept of development is the expansion of real freedoms that people enjoy.He defines it in terms of society's ability to provide its' citizens with the means for living lives they have reason to value.This is an idea that starkly contrasts with the tradition ideas of development, which focus only on economic measures such as GDP, individual incomes, technological advancement, and industrialization. Sen does not undermine the roles that these advancements play in the process of bringing about "development as freedom" as one's personal income is very relevant to his capabilities; however, he believes that these measures as the focus of development hide the broader scope of their relevance as means to an end rather than an end in and of themselves.The desired end is to increase everyone's "substantive freedoms" as individuals and any development project should be judged in terms of its' ability to do this.
Sen claims that this is not necessarily brand new theory; it is more an expansion on some of the concepts that were written about in antiquity. Aristotle's concepts of "flourishing" and "capacity" as well as Adam Smith's analysis on "necessities" and "conditions of living" have the same kind of idea behind them. Even Karl Marx referred to the American Civil war as being one of the most important events of human history because of the significance of a struggle for freedom for freedom's own sake, despite the economic significance.Studies of American slaves in the south show that for the most part, their "standard of living" in economic terms actually went down as a result of the war despite their newfound ability to earn wages.Sen uses this example to illustrate that there are other qualitative measures for "standard of living" that are basic to bettering the human condition.Many of these have been conceptualized in the past and Sen's work does much to pull them into a methodology for development.He puts forth five types of freedom that are "universal" to the expansion of all human capabilities.
Sen's five types of "basic freedoms" are:
1.Political freedoms –opportunities that people have to determine who should govern and on what principles. This includes the possibility to scrutinize authorities, freedom of expression, uncensored press, and freedom to choose what values will be important
2.Economic Facilities –this refers to the opportunities that individuals enjoy in order to utilize economic resources for the purpose of consumption, production, or exchange.This requires "private property rights." He advocates for the free exchange of goods (free market) with some thoughts about the distribution of income (see the market section)
3.Social opportunities –the arrangements that society makes for education, health care, and other public goods which influence the individuals substantive freedoms to live better.
4.Transparency guidelines –the freedom to deal with one another under guarantees of disclosure and lucidity.This has to do with contract enforcement issues and the level of trust a society has in its social interaction.
5.Protective Security –this has to do with societies ability to care for those who cannot care for themselves, otherwise known as "the social safety net."
These freedoms are all very much interconnected. They are, for the most part, mutually reinforcing.Another way to say this is that the expansion of freedoms and development are two sides to the same coin. Development has to be measured by its ability to expand freedoms, and expanding freedoms helps to spur development.Political freedoms help to promote economic security, Social opportunities facilitate economic participation, and economic facilities help to generate personal abundance and public resources.Freedoms strengthen one another.Sen argues that any development initiative must include aspects of all five areas of human freedom if there is to be lasting change.
This concept of mutually reinforcing human freedoms as a part of development can be illustrated by a comparison between Asian tiger economies in the 1980's and the present day economies of Brazil and Saudi Arabia.Both these groups produced remarkable growth in terms of GDP; however, development for the majority of the population steadily rose in the first group while in the second group it did not.Brazil and Saudi Arabia are said to have experienced "growth without development" since economic growth alone cannot attain development while other freedoms are neglected.
Conversely the same is true.Before Industrialization, while the country was yet poor in GDP, Japan put high priority on public health and education.When Industrialization came along, Japan grew rapidly and development took place as a result of the freedoms that were already in place.This also shows that the idea of social welfare being a luxury is a farce. This is further illustrated by the mortality in Britain throughout the 20th century.The trend of life expectancy in Britain actually went up during periods of slower economic growth (due to more socialist agendas) and slowed during periods of more rapid growth.Development is a well-rounded effort.
Measures
Sen argues that there is a need to come up with some adequate measures of development as freedom, some of which have already been touched on.He reiterates the fact that development is a very hard thing to measure and there are no "silver bullets" or "golden roads" to do so.He explores two different traditional measures of social justice and discusses the merits and demerits of each.
The first is the Utilitarian approach –which attempts to measure mental satisfaction of each individual and the effect something has on the overall satisfaction of people. The flaw in the approach is that this theory is indifferent to freedom and liberty. There is also no way to compare between the relative happiness of people. Injustice is thought to consist of aggregate loss of happiness.
The second approach is the Libertarian approach –which accentuates the priority of liberty, and the procedures for liberty such as the protection of property rights, personal freedom, and equality. This approach is indifferent to acute poverty and human suffering.
Sen discusses these theories and ultimately calls for the need to pay special attention to measures in each case, as freedoms can be very diverse.He says that society needs to come up with it's own measures based on commonly held values.He mentions that a good "rule of thumb" is that people should be able to appear in public without shame, thus avoiding the social exclusion that takes away from an individual's freedom.
The Market
Sen highlights the market as being an essential mechanism for growth and opportunity.It is a means of generating income essential to the capability functions of human development, but it is also an end in and of itself.Taking part in the market is such a vital part of human interaction and exchange that it is just as natural as having a conversation.Denial of this opportunity is severely limiting to freedom.Sen illustrates this point with the high unemployment of Western Europe.He describes unemployment as being severely limiting to development.It also affects lives in other ways as it has been tied to loss of self-image, and an inability to take part in society.In this section of the book, Sen admits that some freedoms can be somewhat mutually exclusive.America doesn't have the same social safety nets as Western Europe but would never tolerate the unemployment rates that are common there.
He writes about the inequality of wealth distribution.He argues that income inequality is socially undesirable, however, this needs to be tempered with the fact that some need higher incomes to enjoy the same level of freedoms that others have.For example, someone with a disability might need more income to be mobile, and take part in the society at large.He believes that the income distribution ideally should go as far as it can in giving people the most amount of freedom as possible.For those in poverty, this means the expansion of significant economic opportunity particularly for those with special needs.He doesn't portray an exact prescription as to how to reach this ideal distribution, but I suspect he would advocate for some level of state-run welfare.
Public Policy
Again, all public policy should be evaluated in terms of its' ability to increase human capability or substantive freedoms.He writes about the importance of democracy for three reasons.
1.The intrinsic importance –the right to be apart of self-determining decisions is a freedom
2.Instrumental contributions –governments are then accountable to the people because they must face them during elections and they are exposed to public scrutiny.
3.Constructive role –people become aware of needs and issues that are instrumental in their development and this "awareness" is a substantial freedom in itself.
A democracy is also very important in a society determining and redeterming the values they want to live by.This tends to change over time and democracies are better adept at changing with the people.During times of prosperity, democracy might not seem as important but as soon as things get rocky, democracy becomes very important.
He also debunks so called, "Asian Values", referring to the authoritarian style leadership found in Asian nations particularly East Asian nations. He claims that there is no such thing, and that these ideas are being put forth primarily by the authorities themselves.He says that people's desire to debate and disagree has no cultural relevance. He points to philosophical ancient writings such as "confusionist proverbs" to illustrate fact that the belief in basic human rights is just as prevalent in Eastern philosophy as it is in the West.
On the policy level, Sen asserts the need for governments to pursue "reasoned progress."This refers to the idea that the development process can indeed be pursued according to a set agenda ahead of time.He briefly discusses the arguments against reasoned progress such as 1. Heterogeneity of preferences 2. the law of unintended consequences 3. the range of human values and behavioral norms (for instance, people are not just self-interested and will occasionally act in someone else's best interest). He presents his own arguments against these and states that governments must pursue policies that run on a set of values and a certain set of basic assumptions about human nature. These shouldn't be either "high-minded" or "low-minded" in respect to human nature. People are not totally self-interested yet we do have a tendency to corruption when allowed.This necessitates the use of internal controls on our agendas.
Sen writes that public policy should both set into action the values and priorities that arise from the democratic process and also play a role in guaranteeing that this process continues and gets perfected.It should work to facilitate freedom of press, media independence, expansion of education, enhancement of economic independence, and other changes that help individuals to be participating citizens.In other words, one of the main goals of policy is to get everybody involved in the political process.He writes, "The public must be the active participant in change rather than receivers of cunning social programs."
Women's Issues
Sen writes, "nothing arguably, is as important today as the political, economic, and social participation of women."He says that the lack of women rights in society and in politics have lead to an amazing amount of unfreedoms and underdevelopment. This has not only led to the limitations on women's personal freedoms but has also led to socially undesirable problems contributing to underdevelopment.
The primary limitations on women are as follows:
1.Freedom to seek employment –this helps reduce significant income inequality inside the home.Usually females who control money are much more likely to meet the needs of the children addressing issues of education, undernourishment, and health risks.
2.Education and Employment –this has been empirically proven to reduce fertility leading to income loss and overpopulation problems. This also decreases the gender bias in infant survival.Many studies have been done about the correlation between women's education and female infanticide. In China and certain states in India, families regularly practice selective abortion in favor of male children because of the lack of opportunities for women. This has led to an estimated 100 million "missing women" in Asia.
3.Access to capital and land ownership –When women are not allowed to have access to capital, this leads to economic waste and further decreases the other substantive freedoms of women.He sites the success of lending institutions like the Grameen Bank who overwhelmingly cater to the needs of women.
Women's issues present the biggest obstacle but also the biggest opportunity for development as freedom to take place worldwide.As woman's freedoms are expanded, a host of socially undesirable problems begin to disappear.This includes infant mortality, undernourishment, illiteracy, abortion, poverty, and many other significant unfreedoms.
Famines.
Sen has a whole chapter on famines and the relationship between food production and population control. He states that there has never been a famine in a democracy (although chronic undernourishment has been an issue). This is primarily because democracies are more accountable to the people.China, despite its' economic growth, was the site of the largest famine in history which killed 30 million people in the 1950's.
The primary cause of famines is economically unfavorable conditions for large swaths of a population. It has never been a problem of over-population or even food production –only the economic means to have access to food.
Sen brings up the work on population control of Thomas Malthus and debunks his arguments.He says that there is no food production problem at this time; in fact, food has never been cheaper or more plentiful than it is now. This does not negate the need for population control, which has other constraints of human freedom; it simply asserts the fact that there is no necessity for coercion or reduction of freedoms in order to meet the needs.The Indian state of Kerala stopped the speed of fertility arguably faster than China without coercive measures.They did this by increasing social welfare programs such as health care and education, and they offered these rights and services to women.
In conclusion, development is not a simple formula of accumulation of capital, opening up of markets, or having efficient planning, it is a process that has overarching goals of enhancing individual freedoms and the social commitment to bringing this about –giving people the capability for living lives they have reason to value.The final quote of the book is, "Freedom has a thousand charms to show, that slaves, how'er contented, never know."