Product Description

In Development as Freedom Amartya Sen explains how in a world of unprecedented increase in overall opulence millions of people living in the Third World are still unfree. Even if they are not technically slaves, they are denied elementary freedoms 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6463 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Perfect Paperback
• 366 pages

Synopsis
In Development as Freedom Amartya Sen explains how in a world of unprecedented increase in overall opulence millions of people living in the Third World are still unfree. Even if they are not technically slaves, they are denied elementary freedoms 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.

About the Author
Amartya Sen is the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Science. He has been President of the Indian Economic Association, the American Economic Association, the International Economic Association and the Econometric Society. He has taught at Calcutta, Delhi, Oxford, Cambridge, the London School of Economics, and Harvard.

Customer Reviews

thought provoking view on development
Sen proposes an alternative to the obsession of conservative development theory with economic factors. In his view, development is the product of human agency or freedom i.e the more capable people are of living lives of their own choosing, the more benefits accrue to society. The objective of development policy must, therefore, be to remove constraints to human freedom.

Sen's point is that people need more than money to live qualitative lives. Even more, in many instances (and he gives numerous examples), other factors such as good health, basic education, political freedom would be more helpful than simply throwing money at the situation. Such factors are also "freedoms" which are essential in enhancing human capacity and producing tangible social benefits. A narrow focus on only economic factors would not produce a wholesome, sustainable effect on society.

Sen seeks to expand the boundaries of what development policy should focus on. The most obvious weakness of his paradigm is the lack of a set order of priorities. Even though Sen identifies 5 "key" freeedoms as fundamental to enhancing capacity, his paradigm, because of its focus on the factors affecting human capacity instead of specific macro-economic targets, lacks a concise, easily implementable agenda. However, Sen makes no apologies about this. It is, afterall, his point precisely; there is no single magic lever. For development to occur, governments must address the complex, inter-related, diverse factors (both economic and non-economic) that constrain the capacity of people to live highly productive and qualitative lives.

This is an excellent contribution to development studies and a highly informative read.

Immeasurably dull
This is a classic case of one of those social science/philosophy "masterpieces" that put forward an argument that can be accurately summarised on an A4 sheet of paper but that insist on stretching out a pretty straightforward proposition over hundreds and hundreds of pages (see also, for instance, Rawls' "A Theory of Justice"). The title states that freedom constitutes economic development, and that is really all you are going to get out of it even after investing the weeks it will take you to machete your way through Sen's neutron-star-dense prose. I like Sen's work in general and appreciate him very much as a lecturer (hence the second star), but stay away from this text unless you absolutely require it for an essay or so.

Not for the casual reader IMO
I found this book really slow; Amartya is basically saying that when evaluating economic development more than income should be considered, that freedom is both the means and end of development.

Amartya takes a ludicrously broad scope for freedom; including many health issues under a "freedom to avoid premature mortality" or other phrases to that effect.

So essentially all that is said is blatantly obvious; that health/social participation/other human "freedoms" (v.v. broadly interpreted) are equally important if not more so than mere development with the sole intent to raise incomes.

It takes 300 pages of (IMO) uninteresting and poorly structured argument to make this fundamental point.

Read this if you have a particular interest in development economics, but if you are looking for an interesting and thought-provoking read I don't feel this is your book.