Agency

Birgitta Jansson 101129

Amartya Sen – Development as freedom

• the Nobel Prize in economics 1998• Sen's work in the field of development

economics has had considerable influence in the formulation of the Human Development Report, HDI, published by the United Nations Development Programme.

• Development requires the removal of major sources of un-freedom:– poverty – tyranny– poor economic opportunities – systematic deprivation– neglect of public facilities– intolerance– Over-activity of a repressive state

• Freedom – central to the process of development for two distinct reasons:– the evaluative reason – assessment of progress

has to be done primarily in terms of whether the freedoms that people have are enhanced

– the effectiveness reason – achievement of development is thoroughly dependent on the free agency of people

• The interconnection between freedoms in different kinds are important. Because these interconnections the free and sustainable agency emerges as a major engine of development.

• Agency:– someone who acts and brings about change and

whose achievements’ can be judge in terms of her own values and objectives.

• His capabilities approach focuses on positive freedom, a person's actual ability to be or do something, rather than on negative freedom approaches, which are common in economics and simply focuses on non-interference.

• The relation between individual freedom and the achievement of social development goes well beyond the constitutive connection

• What people can positively achieve is influenced by:– economic opportunities– political liberties– social powers– and the enabling conditions of good health, basic

education, encouragement and cultivation of initiatives

• The institutional arrangements for these opportunities are also influenced by the exercise of people’s freedoms through the liberty to participate in social choice and in making public decisions that impel the progress of these opportunities.

Political freedom and quality of life

• Development analyse:• First:– For example: Liberty of political participation or

opportunity to receive basic education or health care is among the constituent components of development. Very effective in contributing to economic progress

• Second:• GDP/capita • The freedom of individuals to live well and long. I.e.

may have been rich in GDP/capita but shorter life expectancy. – Afro-American in US compared with China and Sri Lanka.

• Third– The role of the market. • Freedom of exchange and transactions is itself part and

parcel of the basic liberties that people have reason to value.

– Rejection of the freedom to participate on the labour market is one of the ways of keeping people in bondage and captivity.• (i.e. if women don’t participate in the labour force –

paid labour)

• The freedom to participate in economic interchange has a basic role in social living. – But of course – must be able to judging the market

mechanism – roles and effects. • What happens to the excluded? – And there is nothing that says that dictatorship is

better for the economic development. That a country will have higher economic growth if the basic political and human and civil rights is not there. If we deny people their rights.

Organizations and value

• The role of social values and norms which can influence the freedoms that people enjoy and have reason to treasure.

• Shared norms – gender, child care, family size, fertility patterns, and treatment of environment.

• Trust (social, economical and political) and corruption.

• Economic, social and political freedom contributes to economic growth and freedom.

Institutions and instrumental freedom

• Five distinct types of freedom: – political freedom– economic facilities– social opportunities– transparency guarantees – protective security

• Each of these distinct types and rights and opportunities helps to advance the general capability of a person. They also complement each other.

• 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) facilities 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.

• Freedoms in different kinds can strengthen one another.

Three important concepts • Resources – the material qualifications that are needed for well-

being • Capabilities – you must have the capability to fulfil/use the resources

• Functioning – what you will achieve when you use your resources

and capabilities. • The absence of functions is to be counted as poor.

• Central– the individuals possibilities to make a rational

choice which include that the individual have the resources and capabilities that are needed to get a certain amount of well-being.

– If an individual have all this things but choose to not – than the individual is not considered to be i.e. poor.

• Poverty as a deprivation of basic capabilities.

• Income and capabilities – low income can be a major reason for illiteracy

and ill health as well as hunger and undernourishment

– conversely better education and health help in the earning of higher income

• Sen's revolutionary contribution to development economics and social indicators is the concept of capability.

• He argues that governments should be measured against the concrete capabilities of their citizens.

• This is because top-down development will always trump human rights as long as the definition of terms remains in doubt – is a 'right' something that must be provided or

something that simply cannot be taken away?

• For instance, in the United States citizens have a hypothetical "right" to vote. To Sen, this concept is fairly empty. – In order for citizens to have a capacity to vote, they

first must have "functioning’s." – These "functioning’s" can range from the very

broad, such as the availability of education, to the very specific, such as transportation to the polls.

– Only when such barriers are removed can the citizen truly be said to act out of personal choice.

• It is up to the individual society to make the list of minimum capabilities guaranteed by that society

• Civil Rights, Human Rights and Political Rights are very important

Famine

• In many cases of famine, food supplies were not significantly redistributed.

• Bengal:– food production was higher than in previous non-famine

years. – Thus, Sen points to a number of social and economic

factors, such as declining wages, unemployment, increased food prices, and poor food-distribution systems.

• These issues led to starvation among certain groups in society.

• Sens capabilities approach focuses– positive freedom – freedom to be able to - a

person's actual ability to be or do something– negative freedom – freedom from (state)

interventions - which are common in economics and simply focuses on non-interference

• In the Bengal famine, rural labourers' negative freedom to buy food was not affected.

• But they still starved because they were not positively free to do anything– they did not have the functioning of nourishment, nor

the capability to escape morbidity.• Sen – famines do not occur in functioning

democracies because their leaders must be more responsive to the demands of the citizens.

• In order for economic growth to be achieved– social reforms, such as improvements in education and

public health, must precede economic reform.

• In developed countries no famines – unemployment insurance and social assistance.

• Sudan and North Korea – famine because of dictatorship.

• No starvation in a democratic country • Today – problem with increasing food price.• Poverty is the lack of– food, money but also lack of power, health, respect

and security