Amartya Sen

Development as Freedom

Amartya SenFirst Anchor Books Edition,

Random House,Inc. New York,2000

Presented by: Jo B. BitonioDPA 102 Philippine Administrative

System

We live in a world of unprecedented opulence, of a kind that would have been hard even to imagine a century or two ago. There have also been remarkable changes beyond the economic sphere. The 20th century has established democratic and participatory governance as the pre-eminent model of political organization.

Concepts of human rights and political liberty are now very much a part of prevailing rhetoric. People live much longer, on the average, than ever before. Also, the different regions of the globe are now most closely linked than they have even been. This is not only in the fields of trade, commerce and communication, but also in terms of interactive ideas and ideals

And yet we live in a word with remarkable deprivation, destitution and oppression. There are many problems as well as old ones, including persistence of poverty and unfulfilled elementary needs, occurrence of famines and widespread hunger, violation of elementary political freedom as well as basic liberties, extensive neglect of interests and agency of women, and worsening threats to our environment and to the sustainability of our economic and social lives. Many of this deprivations can be observed, in one form or another, in rich countries as well as the poor ones .

Despite unprecedented increases in overall opulence, the contemporary world denies elementary freedoms to majority of people. Sometimes the lacks of substantive freedoms relates directly to economic poverty, which robs people of the freedom to satisfy hunger, or to achieve sufficient nutrition, or to obtain remedies for treatable illnesses, or the opportunity to be adequately clothed or sheltered, or to enjoy clean water or sanitary facilities

In other cases, the unfreedom links closely to the lack of public facilities and social care, such as the absence of epidemiological programs, or of organized arrangement of health care or educational facilities, or of effective institutions for the maintenance of local peace and order

Development is argued as a process of expanding real freedom that people enjoy. Focusing on human freedoms contrasts with narrower views of development, such as identifying development with the gross national product, or with the rise of personal incomes, or with technological advance, or with social modernization

Growth of GNP or of individual incomes can be very important as a means to expanding the freedoms enjoyed by the members of the society. But freedoms depend on other determinants, such ass social and economic arrangements (ex. Education and health care), as well as political and civil rights (ex. The liberty to participate in public discussion and scrutiny) industrialization and or technological progress or social modernization can substantially contribute to expanding human freedom, but freedom depends on other influences as well.

Institutions ad Instrumental Freedoms

The five distinct types of freedom, seen in an “instrumental” perspective are:

1. political freedoms 2. economic facilities 3. social opportunities 4. transparency guarantees 5. protective security

Political Freedoms

• Broadly conceived (including civil rights), refer to the opportunities that people have to determine who should govern and on what principles, and to include the possibility to scrutinize and criticize authorities, to have freedom of political expression and uncensored press, to enjoy the freedom to choose between different political parties, and so on.

Economic Facilities• Refer to the opportunities that individuals

respectively enjoy to utilize economic resources for the purpose of consumption, or production, or exchange. The economic entitlements that a person has will depend on the resources owned or available for use as well as the conditions of exchange, such as relative prices and the working of the markets. Insofar as the process of economic development increases the income and wealth of the country, they are reflected in corresponding enhancement of economic entitlements of the population

Social Opportunities• Refer to the arrangements that society makes for education,

health care and so on, which influences the individual’s substantive freedom to live better. These facilities are important not only for the conduct of private lives but also for more effective participation in economic and political activities.

Ex. Illiteracy can be a major barrier to participation in economic activities that require production according to specification or demand strict quality control (as globalize trade increasingly does) Similarly, political participation may be hindered by the inability to read newspapers or to communicate in writing with others involved in political activities

Transparency Guarantee

• Deal with the need for openness that people can expect: the freedom to deal with one another under guarantees of disclosure and lucidity. When the trust is seriously violated, the lives of many people – both direct and third parties – maybe adversely affected by the lack of openness.

• Transparency guarantees have a clear instrumental role in preventing corruption, financial irresponsibility and underhand dealings.

Protective Security

• Is needed to provide asocial safety net for preventing the affected population from being reduced to abject misery, and in some cases even starvation and death. The domain of protective security includes fixed institutional arrangements to the indigents as well as ad hoc arrangements such as famine relief or emergency public employment to generate income for destitutes

Acknowledging, foundationally, the evaluative importance of freedom, we have to understand the remarkable connection that links freedom of different kinds with one another.

Political freedom (in the form of free speech and elections) help to promote economic security

Social opportunities (in the form of education and health facilities) facilitate economic participation

Economic facilities (in the form of opportunities for participation in trade and production) can help to generate personal abundance as well as public resources for social facilities.

The ends and means of development

• The enhancement of human freedom is both the main object and primary means of development

• The instrumental roles of freedoms includes several distinct but interrelated components such as economic facilities, political freedoms, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, and protective security.

• The process of development is crucially influenced by the interconnections. Corresponding to multiple interconnected freedoms, there is a need to develop and support a plurality of institutions, including democratic systems, legal mechanisms, market structures, educational and health provisions , media and other communication facilities, etc

• The institutions can incorporate private initiatives as well as public arrangements and also mixed structures, such as nongovernmental organizations and cooperative entities

• The ends and means of development call for placing the perspective of freedom at the center of the stage. The people have to be seen, in this perspective, as being actively involved – given the opportunity- in shaping their destiny, and not as just as passive recipients of the fruits of cunning development programs

• Analysis of development calls for integrated understanding of the respective roles of these institutions and their interactions.

• The formation of values and the emergence and evolution of social ethics are also part of the process of development that needs attention, along with the working of markets and other institution

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