Development as Freedom
By the winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Economics, an essential and paradigm-altering framework for understanding economic development--for both rich and poor--in the twenty-first century.Freedom, Sen argues, is both the end and most efficient means of sustaining economic life and the key to securing the general welfare of the world's entire population. Releasing the idea of individual freedom from association with any particular historical, intellectual, political, or religious tradition, Sen clearly demonstrates its current applicability and possibilities. In the new global economy, where, despite unprecedented increases in overall opulence, the contemporary world denies elementary freedoms to vast numbers--perhaps even the majority of people--he concludes, it is still possible to practically and optimistically restain a sense of social accountability. Development as Freedom is essential reading.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
When Sen, an Indian-born Cambridge economist, won the 1998 Nobel Prize for Economic Science, he was praised by the Nobel Committee for bringing an "ethical dimension" to a field recently dominated by technical specialists. Sen here argues that open dialogue, civil freedoms and political liberties are prerequisites for sustainable development. He tests his theory with examples ranging from the former Soviet bloc to Africa, but he puts special emphasis on China and India. How does one explain the recent gulf in economic progress between authoritarian yet fast-growing China and democratic, economically laggard India? For Sen, the answer is clear: India, with its massive neglect of public education, basic health care and literacy, was poorly prepared for a widely shared economic expansion; China, on the other hand, having made substantial advances in those areas, was able to capitalize on its market reforms. Yet Sen demolishes the notion that a specific set of "Asian values" exists that might provide a justification for authoritarian regimes. He observes that China's coercive system has contributed to massive famine and that Beijing's compulsory birth control policyAonly one child per familyAhas led to fatal neglect of female children. Though not always easy reading for the layperson, Sen's book is an admirable and persuasive effort to define development not in terms of GDP but in terms of "the real freedoms that people enjoy." (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In his first book since winning the 1998 Nobel Prize for Economics, Sen (Trinity Coll., Cambridge) presents a decent summary of his thought. Advancing development as a method for expanding economicAand thus politicalAfreedom (he sees both as a means and an end) Sen recapitulates his studies of famine, poverty, life expectancy, mortality, and illiteracy in the Third World. A somewhat controversial choice for the Nobel Prize (since his focus on what is called "welfare economics," which makes human welfare central to economic thought, is not universally respected), he employs a strong ethical framework that gives his writing a level of moral authority not common in economic scholarship. Aimed at the intelligent reader, this densely written book is somewhat repetitive and dull, but it comes without the math that usually accompanies economic studies. Recommended for academic libraries and suitable for large public libraries; those that need at least one book by this Nobel laureate could even chose this over Sen's most famous work, Poverty and Famines.APatrick J. Brunet, Western Wisconsin Technical Coll. Lib., La Crosse
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Sen, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in economics, has produced a work of eminent value. He focuses on the tendency of Western economics to emphasize gross national product or aggregate wealth as indicators of national well-being. A more sentient measure of the usefulness and value of development is whether it expands "real freedoms that people enjoy." Sen examines other determinants of a nation's wealth, such as social and economic arrangements, political and civil rights, industrialization and technological progress and modernization, factors that can substantially contribute to expanding human freedom. However, as both a means and an end, freedom (the need for the individual to be involved in making decisions regarding his or her life) provides the foundation for well-being. Sen provides practical examples of the application of his concepts. Despite a healthy GNP in the U.S., African American men have a shorter life expectancy than men living in certain Third World countries. This book is a great read for social, as well as political and economic, planners. Vernon Ford
Customer Reviews
Trite yet obvious
I was disappointed with this book. It's really not the least bit insightful or helpful--opening your eyes driving through any slum would yield the observations available here.
Look for something else if you're considering this book, or borrow it from a library instead of purchasing.
Great Book On Development Theory
Development as Freedom dives into the concept that both the result and mechanism of development is the growth of actual freedoms that people enjoy. It is no good to be rich slave.
The book dives headfirst into various development theories that both support and oppose this idea and Amartya Sen navigates them all with ease. He does a great job explaining varying economic theories to someone like me who has no economic background. If you are interested in international development work this is a must-read.
The focus on freedom
Amartya Sen's book answers a question that current development practices beg: Development for the sake of what? He provides grounding for his claim that freedom is both the process to vibrant development, and the goal.
Sen distinguishes his speculative new approach on economic development, from the most traditional:
* Approaches that focus their attention in achieving some levels in development's proxy variables - per capita income; income distribution and poverty levels or health, education, and safety indexes-
* Approaches based in levels of social satisfaction (levels of utility) based in individual/subjective "maps" of preferences.
* And finally, others approaches focused in the capacity of a particular community to achieve what Sen calls substantive freedom -centralized welfare approach- or procedural freedom -libertarian approach-.
Sen speculation seems to be relevant in many ways:
1. First, there is no doubt we are in a moment of enormous changes and mayor crises. Our mass production, oil based civilization is coming to an end with all the resistance, violence and waste it implies. Our national democracies -and its institutions such as legislation, justice, presidency and other more decentralized as media, lobbyist networks, or intelligence- have showed significant weaknesses in addressing global issues, and a systematic tendency to favor elites' games. There are mayor power shift opening the space for extended cultural re-valuations of values based in the emerging preeminence of China and India.
2. Second, there is an emerging new universe hold together by the internet and it capacity to sustain digital communities and digital worlds that have proved that is possible to create massive and sophisticated non-market value. These emerging universes embody a new culture of collaboration that is influencing and been influenced by the traditional forces of the molecular world. The technological force nurturing these changes has many resemblances with the historical opening produce by Gutenberg print press in 1450.
3. Third, there is some resignation with the current technocratic approaches to development such as those represented by Jeffrey Sachs.
4. Fourth, the collapse of the old order and the emergence of a new order may damage the possibilities to express the ethical ideals of the modern civilization -individual freedom- by enforcing control with new technologies and old institutions, or it may contribute to create a new Digital Renascence, or it may bring something new we are no able to see yet. A new understanding of freedom and human agency.
5. Putting at the center of the economic development conversation -as Sen does- the notion of development as expanding freedom, the notion of freedom itself, and the expansion of freedom to non-human life it seems to be a powerful tribute from the best of the past to the emerging and unbirth future. Sen is bringing a new invigorating perspective to an old conversation.
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