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Summary: Distinguishing means and ends
Review: "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.
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Summary: Sen's Re-visit to Development
Review: ...highly illuminating and pursuasive. Sen once again argues how divorcing of ethical dimensions to the vital economic discussions might be misleading....development is very much in consonance with enhancing of human freedom...it is a must read for every policy maker and people in general.
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Summary: Great
Review: A book that can open your mind, raise you up to a new level of the understanding of the economy.
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Summary: All starts to Freedom !
Review: A must read. In this carefully analyzed work, Sen presents the basic essense of development that seems to have been forgotten by many economists focused in creation of wealth and in measurement of GDP and GNP. Amartya Sen presents how essential freedom is as an end to the process of development and indicates the futility of economic development with unfreedoms of people. The fact many major international organizations are revising their development programs on Sen's notion of development indeed presents how vital his notions are for any society. - Mumtaz
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Summary: putting the person in development
Review: a number of people are turned off once a particular book or essay discusses normative topics. i think that this is somewhat wrong since it refuses all the potentials of our humanity. Amartya Sen's book discusses development as a very human process by harnessing the simplicity of the essence of freedom as a means in the achievement of a developed society. this is truly a must read for every student of political economy and to every politician on the planet.
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Summary: An oustanding work
Review: Although certain sections of this book are tedious and technical, the content is interesting and the analysis of current development policies provokes the reader to consider how to unite the concepts of development and freedom.
Sen was exposed to poverty when young and has done extensive research on the nature of poverty, starvation and other deprivation. His work is deserving of the Nobel Prize which he received in 1998.
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Summary: If only it would be taken seriously
Review: 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.
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Summary: A brillant and provocative book
Review: 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.
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Summary: The first Great Book of the 21st Century?
Review: 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.
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Summary: Can Economics Really Set You Free?
Review: Development As Freedom by Amartya Sen explains and examines the complex topic of how people gain freedom through the process of development. In this novel, Sen focuses on economic development and how its progress brings forth an increase of freedom among the world's human inhabitants. He tries to prove this theory through many different sources, including historical examples, comparing and contrasting a number of countries throughout the world, and numerous government policies and practices.
The novel is comprised of twelve chapters that break his theory into smaller bits of similar information. It is also important to note that Sen based Development As Freedom on five lectures he gave as a Presidential Fellow at the World Bank during the fall of 1996. According to him, this novel was written and organized as a much more accessible piece of literature geared towards non-specialist readers. This was done surely for the sake of getting his research and theory out to the interested general public.
But for me, Development As Freedom was one of the least accessible novels I have ever read. I probably would have gotten just as much out of the book if I would have just read the title. Don't get me wrong, Sen makes some great points and does a good job of arguing his position, but it was quite a task to get through his entire novel. Half the time I found myself trying to figure out what he was trying to get across to the reader as well as re-reading the plethora of information he wrote in parentheses. This novel still seems aimed at a population with an excellent understanding of economics and how markets operate. And I myself do not fit into this specific population.
But I did understand Amartya Sen's underlying theory throughout Development As Freedom, which states that humans will gain substantive freedoms through the process of development. This novel definitely focuses on developing countries and how many of their inhabitants are deprived of necessary freedoms that most people in developed countries take for granted. I admire Sen's stance on the issue of bringing forth these freedoms to the developing world. Everyone, no matter where they live, work, pray, etc., should be given a fair chance in life. The author seems to think the same way and has devised an economic theory as to how to bring forth this change. Although I may not understand the technicalities of his findings, I do support his passion for granting freedom to the entire human race.
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