Three Famines: Starvation and Politics by Thomas Keneally - Article Example

In a democratic state, all the citizens and agencies will pile pressure on the government to act accordingly in order to prevent the occurrence of famine. For instance, the availability of a free press will alert the government of any persistence of hunger in the society, while the civil society pushes for action. In a such a case, the politicians in power would consider the matter out of self-interest for the sake of securing a vote in the next election, as it is less likely for the public to vote in individuals who watched their families die of a problem that they could solve.

In all the three famines described by Keneally, it is evident that as much as there was a natural disaster that led to the development of each of the famines, all of them were because of the inaction of the government (Keneally 25). Due to the scarcity of food that resulted from the natural disasters, it is significant to note that the adverse increase of prices beyond affordability and lack of intervention by the government was the major driver of the development of famine.