Account for Amartya Sen's Approach to Development as Freedom - Essay Example

ACCOUNT FOR AMARTYA SENS APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT AS FREEDOM By of the of the of the School State 21 December 2014 Introduction Development as freedom is a very popular work of Amartya Sen. In this work, he has analysed the relationship between development and freedom, i.e. the way in which freedom is a fundamental component of development and a key feature of many other aspects. Development illustrates complex human processes which, according to Praz (2010, n.p.) are “rich in linkages and interrelations, which have been erroneously simplified in the course of time, by various single explanatory variables”. Amartya Sen’s developmental freedom exposes freedom as the key value in development. The growth of freedom is seen as the end to and resources of development. Sen says that development is something that can be seen and is a process of increasing people’s freedom. This paper discusses Amartya Sen’s approach to development and looks at how his approach differs from other approaches to development. Discussion The connection between development and freedom has been subject to many debates. This is because while some people view freedom as a great partner to progress, while others believe that individual freedom leads to adversity and slows down development. Let us begin by looking at the definitions of both terms. Development is defined by Lawn as “an evolutionary process involving the qualitative improvement in the human condition over time” (2001, p. 41). Freedom on the other hand is “the possibility for choosing what is good lying immanent within the plurality of alternatives which appear more or less good” (Tymieniecka, 2009, p. 213). Individual growth which relates to personal growth translates to expansion of freedoms enjoyed by people in a society. Freedom does not depend on development alone. There are other factors such as political, social, economic and civil rights. For development to prevail, there is a need for any source of un-freedom be eliminated. According to Sen, these include poverty, poor economic activities, neglect of public facilities and intolerance (1999). Lack of freedom directly relates to economic poverty and peoples denial into accessing medication, clothing and other basic needs. Governments interference of such freedom like allowing people to freely participate in social, political and economic life holds people captives of poverty and undeveloped. Sen believes that the process of development has two discrete reasons: the evaluative and effectiveness reasons. In the case of evaluative reasons, assessment of progress has to be analysed based on the freedom of the people, while the effectiveness reason observes that developmental achievement is dependent on people’s agency. Through the relationship between development and freedom, Sen believes that sustainable agency is as a result of development which in turn influences other free agencies. People’s achievement is influenced by economic opportunities, political freedom, social freedom, good health conditions and knowledge availability. To illustrate his observation on freedom and development, Sen gives an example of development in terms of Gross National Product (GNP) growth or industrialisation, whereby he asks whether the education achieved during social and political freedom is not conducive to developmental agendas. Another illustration is the freedom of economy in the market place, which forms part of developmental agenda. Market mechanism has the ability to contribute to economic growth and progress. What boosts this development is the freedom for exchange and transaction of what it has been valued. Market environment brings people from different backgrounds, races, ethnicities and from varied levels of financial stability, but in the process, all these people interact through the freedom of association. All of them are part of the society as justified by regulations. The sharing and exchanges in the market place lead to growth in market economy and development. Any legislation to restrict people from enjoying full participation in the market is seen as captivating people in a bondage and denying them their rights and freedoms. The restriction of market access by some products is often among some deprivations which many producers suffer. They are denied their basic role of economic development. It is more often common that a couple discuss about development. They discuss about how to be wealthy and have a good life. Even though each couple dreams about this, worldly possessions have limitations. Freedom has been viewed to involve a procedure that allows freedom of actions and decisions, including peoples potential considering their circumstances. Lack of freedom or un-freedom occurs as a result of poor organization and handling of events such as political inadequacies and violation of civil rights. It also occurs when people are denied the opportunity to express their achievement desires. The two aspects of freedom vary and can be viewed on different levels, but both have a role in ensuring that development is realised as freedom. Sen has analysed freedom as the building block for development. To achieve this, individuals need to be given the chance to live the kinds of lives that they value and feel most comfortable leading. In such lives, their values are enhanced through the policies presented to the public. Given the freedom, individuals can direct the energies to developmental plans making their participation most effective and at last, have a reason to value their decision. There are various reasons to show case the importance of a person’s freedom in the conception of development, which is attributed to evaluation and effectiveness. The success of the society is assessed through eventual freedom that the individuals of the society enjoy. Having freedom at one’s disposal is critical to fostering the opportunities to acquire more achievements and valuable results. Substantive freedom is fundamental not only in assessment of success and failure, but also in determining the individual inventiveness and collective efficacy. Much freedom enhances the potential of people to assist other people in the community by inflicting the ability for development. This relates to what Sen has labelled as agency aspect. When an individual is inhibited, his rights and capabilities affect his income. This will have adverse effects to social life, which becomes a major reason for illiteracy, poor health conditions and malnutrition. On the other hand, good education and better sanitation increases the income. There is a good reason to regard poverty as deficiency of essential competence. This is because it places income into a far position. Poverty leads to many problems such as mortality, malnutrition, illiteracy and wide-spread economic and social failures. This problem does not only affect the under developed countries, but also the developed ones like Europe. In analysing freedom and development, the perspective of poverty has to be viewed in a wide sense. Sen questions the context of having a narrow view of development in terms of Gross National Product growth. It is in this regard that many wonder if there is a relationship between development and liberties when it comes to the political and social freedoms. He elaborates the importance of these elements as the basic constituents of development. According to Sen, such questions miss the point because it is so obvious that these elements affect development. He further argues that “their relevance for development does not have to be freshly established through their indirect contribution to the growth of GNP or to the promotion of industrialization” (1999, p.5). The observation made perhaps acknowledges the connection between development and freedom and terms the relationship to be over and above the directly constitutive role of these freedoms as far as development is concerned. Further relation is based on discord between individual income and freedoms in development, casting doubts on the length of time it can live. San offers an example of people living in South Africa compared to those living in China. Those in South Africa are much richer that those in China, but the life expectancies is the vice versa. This case still applies to the black Americans who are poorer than the white Americans, but their life expectancy is higher than the whites. Such contrasts even in the developed countries are seen to be relevant examples to analyse development and underdevelopment. Market economy and transactions have a role in the process of development. This market responsibility has been widely echoed by the contemporary development literature. Market environment grants people their right to make exchanges and transactions. This forms part of the desired liberty and freedom that people often value. It is in the market place that people meet and make exchanges of ideas. If the process of market is eliminated, it is as good as depriving people the opportunity to meet, mingle and share. Sen says that “the freedom to exchange words, or goods, or gifts does not need defensive justification in terms of their favourable but distant effects; they are part of the way human beings in society live and interact with each other” (1999, p. 6). Even though market contribution has been acknowledged, its existence depends on the freedom of interaction through gifts, goods and greetings. Barring freedom to dominate in the labour market is one way of keeping people in darkness and captivity. The fight against such behaviour is highly encouraged so as to restore the privileges of freedom just the way the Americans had done during their period of civil wars. When people are granted the freedom to enter a market, they highly contribute to development thus they are significant contributors to industrialization. Market and labour freedom have long been fought by the likes of Karl Marx, a capitalist who could not relent in his quest to ensure that slavery and exclusion of people from labour markets comes to a halt. Un-freedom and restrictions in labour markets are among the modern problems affecting development. Un-freedom inhibits the potential of farmers and producers. Freedom in market interchange has a major role in fundamental social life. Market mechanism has a very crucial developmental role. When it is often not neglected, it promotes economic equity through economic growth. A consideration has to be taken on the other segment of the society where blots of pessimism and negative life approach are dominant. It is a place whereby people live a life associated to that market. Economic un-freedom can be caused by tremendous poverty and can easily lead to violation of many other freedoms. Un-freedom leads to the emergence of other un-freedoms. Just like the way lack of economic freedom causes social un-freedom, social and political slavery leads to economic slavery (Sen, 1999). Sen has discussed on the ability for an individual to survive, rather than giving in to early death. Even though this spirit of survival is another form of survival, there are many other freedoms that are very crucial to the extent that the intense coverage could be a problem in achieving an operation that is purely freedom centred. However, freedom centering shares a common ground with living a quality life which dwells on how an individual lives and does not relate to how much a person earns. Merely focusing on the quality of life rather than having a comparison with the source if income is total abstinence of economical sense. The initial meaning and purpose of economics was to enable one to carry out an assessment of the factors that contribute to the human success. This is in relation to classical models developed by Aristotle, William Petty and other theorists. Sen alludes that these pioneers of economic analysis did not particularly deal on the issue of development as freedom; “they also saw the importance of income to be instrumental and circumstantially contingent” (1999, p. 25). Early economists such as William Petty are among the pioneers who constructed the income and expenditure methods, as ways of estimating national income. These became building blocks of what later followed. The later models were more detailed and concerned with common safety and an individual’s particular expenses. For example, William Petty particularly dealt with assessment of peoples living conditions. He analysed scientific theories with early politics. These old professionals left a mark for the upcoming professionals, who would then concentrate on the resulting functions instead of commodities alone. Sen appreciates the contribution which market mechanism makes and its attributes to the old heritage. The comparison of market economies relates the function of freedom and development thus raising some issues of concern that need to be addressed. One of the issues is restriction to opportunities which is detrimental to development. This is because it is an insecurity in itself. The denial to opportunities restricts people from doing that that they can. Sen says that “Arbitrary restrictions of the market mechanism can lead to a reduction of freedom because of the consequential effects of the absence of markets” (1999, p. 26). Such restrictions deny people economic growth that is often associated with market offers and support. Freedom here has been presented not to be related to the efficiencies in the market place, neither does it relate to the market system. It stands out on its own as simply the right to carry out transactions without any limiting factor. It is widely known nowadays that the main function of market is to expand income and resources, as well as economic opportunities to people. Any arbitrary restrictions of the market system cause reduction in freedoms due to the consequences of the absence of markets with an adverse effect being derivation, which occurs as a result of people being denied an opportunity that can be found in a market mechanism. Sen has a strong believe in the market economy and alludes that “there is empirical evidence that the market system can be an engine of fast economic growth and expansion of living standards” (1999, p. 26). Policies imposed on markets restrict the opportunities to expand substantive freedoms that would be achieved through market systems. Even though a market can be counter productive such that it calls for the need to provide market regulation, serious arguments arise on these regulations. The goodness is that in most cases, the positive effects are recognised. The field of economics has leaned towards focusing on utilities, income and wealth, rather than on the value of freedoms. This has led to underestimation of the role of market mechanism, even though the professionals have sung praises on it. The exact reason is not based on the praises rather on the reasons. In regard to how people view development and the ends and means to achieving it, they have two different perspectives. There are those that view development as a fierce process that involves a lot of sweat, tears and even blood and those that view it as a friendly process. Those that view it as a fierce process believe that “it demands calculated neglect of various concerns that are seen as ‘soft-headed’”, while those that view it as a friendly process view it as being “exemplified by such things as mutually beneficial exchanges…., or by the working of social safety nets, or of political liberties, or of social development” or a combination of all the factors (Sen, 1999, pp. 35-36). Freedom plays great roles in development. This is because it acts as the principal means of and primary end to development. The roles can be subdivided into instrumental and constitutive roles. The instrumental role places emphasis on economic progress through practice of freedom and rights, while the constitutive role places emphasis on substantive freedom in bettering human life. Examples of instrumental freedoms include protective security, transparency guarantees, social opportunities, economic facilities and political freedoms. Sen points out that “the substantive freedoms include elementary capabilities like being able to avoid such deprivations as starvation, under-nourishment, escapable morbidity and premature mortality, as well as the freedoms that are associated with being literate and numerate….and so on” (1999, p. 36). Amartya Sen’s approach to development differs from other approaches in a number of ways. The first way is by focussing on empowerment through his capabilities approach to development. The approach “advocates that individuals should be given the opportunity to strengthen and expand their capabilities to lead the kind of life that they value (for example to be free from disease, take part in community life, or have self-respect)” (Krznaric, 2007, p. 38). This approach differs from other approaches mainly from the fact that it doesn’t view people as individuals after only self-interests. Second, while other approaches to development focus on utility or income, Amartya Sen’s approach “does a better job of identifying and evaluation systematic unequal treatment of marginalized groups” (Poe and Souffrant, 2008, p. 151). Sen’s approach is against deliberative democracy, which encourages different forms of injustice. Third, while other approaches to development tend to ignore humanity, Sen’s approach is humane. This is especially due to the fact that it implements ethical economics when it comes to development (OHearn, 2009). Sen also identifies the difference between human capital and human capability. Between the two, human capability is more important because it recognises substantive freedom. Conclusion Sen has observed that freedom is not mainly the primary end of development, but rather the main means. There are wide varieties of freedoms and all are remarkably linked through various mechanisms. These freedoms range from political freedoms, which help to promote economic security and provide social opportunities to other forms of freedom. Freedom links economic prosperity and development and can be strengthened by other freedoms. When freedom opportunities prevail, individuals can easily shape their destiny and the end result is prevalence in the free and sustainable agency. Individuals can easily shape their destiny in the presence of adequate social opportunities. For this reason, Sen’s work is applied by economists worldwide. It also holds no threat since it is humane in nature. References Krznaric, R., 2007. How Change Happens: Interdisciplinary Perspectives for Human Development. Oxford: Oxfam GB. Lawn, Philip A., 2001. Toward Sustainable Development: An Ecological Economics Approach. Florida: CRC Press LLC. OHearn, D., Amartya Sens Development as Freedom: Ten Years Later. [online] Available at: < http://www.developmenteducationreview.com/issue8-focus1?page=2> [Accessed 28 December 2014]. Praz, A., 2010. Development as Freedom: From A Basic to A Comprehensive Development Approach. Munich: GRIN Verlag. Poe, Danielle and Souffrant, Eddy M., 2008. Parcelling the Globe: Philosophical Explorations in Globalization, Global Behaviour, and Peace. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Sen, A., 1999. Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Tymieniecka, A-T., 2009. Memory in the Ontopoiesis of Life: Book Two. Memory in the Orbit of the Human Creative Existence. London: Springer Science + Business Media. Read More