Development as freedom
Main idea :
Effectiveness and interconnections
Freedom is central to the process of development because:
1) Progress has to be evaluated to see if there are improvements in therms of people's freedoms.
2) Development depends on the free agency of people.
What people can achieve is influenced by economic opportunities, political liberties and social powers.
Transactions, markets and economic unfreedom
The market mechanism contributes to high economic growth and progress. Freedom of exchange and transactions are part of the basic liberties that people value.
Economic unfreedom, in the form of extreme poverty, makes a person a prey to the violation of other types of freedom.
Economic and social unfreedom are related, economic unfreedom influences and "pushes" social unfreedom, and vice versa.
Organizations and values
Organizations and institutions like markets, governments, political parties, and many others, are vital in the process of development.
"The exercise of freedom is mediated by values, but the values in turn are influenced by public discussions and political interactions, which are themselves influenced by participatory freedoms" (Sen, A, 1999)
Institutions and instrumental freedoms
Five types of freedom:
1) Political freedoms
2) Economic facilities
3) Social opportunities
4) Transparency guarantees
5)Protective security
"Freedoms are not only the primary ends of development, they are also among its principal means" (Sen, A, 1999)
Forms of unfreedom
- Undernutrition
- Limited access to health care
- Clean water shortage
- Lack of basic services
- Nonfunctional education
- Unemployment
- Gender inequality
Processes and opportunities
Unfreedom happens when there are inadequate procceses, like the violation of human, political and civil rights, and trough inadequate opportunities.
Two roles of freedom
1) Substantive freedoms are essential to the evaluation of the success and failure of a society.
2) Substantive freedoms are a principal determinant of individual initiative and social effectiveness.
Evaluative systems: Incomes and capabilities
The deprivation of individual capabilities can have consequences like low income, causing illiteracy and hunger.
Poverty and inequality
Poverty can be seen as a deprivation of elementary capabilities, and can be reflected in the creation of inequality, specially gender inequality.
Values and the process of valuation
"Since our freedoms are diverse, there is room for explicit valuation in determining the relative weights of different types of freedoms in assessing individual advantages and social progress" (Sen, A, 1999)
Tradition, culture and democracy
It has been argued that the economic development as we know it can be harmful for a nation because it can threaten its traditions and cultural heritage.
To have greater development, it is necessary to have freedom and to remove the aspects that limit the latter. Some aspects are poverty, tyranny, poor economic opportunities, systematic social deprivation, neglect of public facilities, intolerance, and the overactivity of repressive states.
Any aspect that can stop a human being from enjoying freedoms and rights can represent an obstacle to freedom.
"Development can be seen, it is argued here, as a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy." (Sen, A, 1999)
Freedom can be expanded thanks to industrialization, technological progress, and social modernization, but its expansion depends on other influences as well.
It can be said that everything that makes life easier for a person pushes the expansion of freedom.
