Reading Amartya Sen – 1988- The Concept of Development

"The Concept of Development"

The definition of freedom:

The needs of human beings to self-actualize (opportunity, freedom, unfreedoms) -- look at the
promotion of substantive freedoms and remove unfreedoms.

Substantive freedoms: education, health, politics, civil rights, etc. Unfreedoms: Poverty, tyranny,
economic oppression, social deprivation, neglect of public facilities, repressive or overactive
states

Uses of poverty:
1. Insures society's dirty work gets done.
2. Subsidize the rich by working cheaply.
3. Create "poverty jobs"
4. Recycle waste, reuse-refuse, scavenge...
5. Marked as deviant thereby legitimizing conventional norms and the dominant order
6. Vicarious debauchery for the affluent

"The Concept of Development"

• Classic economics is about commodities and it is immoral to apply these concepts to people
• Development economics is focused of capabilities and people
• Development should be focused on how people function and how well the state facilitates their
functioning
• (Inequitable) growth and WB basic needs approach not enough

Argued for a more holistic depiction of poverty - he argues promotion of substantive freedoms, or
capabilities. Development is about expanding freedoms and removing unfreeodoms.

The Washington consensus advocates free trade, floating exchange rates, free markets and
macroeconomic stability.

The Concept of Development

- GNP does not account for living conditions, life expectancy, education, health conditions
- development should be defined by functionings and promote freedoms and remove restrictions
- emphasis on agency (i.e. wage labor vs. slavery)

Amartya Sen "The Concept of Development"

book argues that poverty measured only based on GNP is inadequate; we must measure the
ability for "human flourishing" to take place in a society to truly understand poverty (through
promotion of substantive freedoms i.e. capabilities, and removal of "unfreedoms" i.e. restrictions

must take into account "instrumental freedoms" (rather than intrinsic value) when measuring
poverty like economic opportunity, political freedoms, social facilities, transparency guarantees
and protective security

think of agency (slavery) vs. wage labor (marx

how does Sen measure development? Answer: through freedom

Sen-Development as freedom
-promote substantive freedoms (capabilities)- edu, health, political, civil rights
-remove unfreedoms (restrictions)- poverty, tyranny, poor economic opportunities

Sen (reading main arguments): -question of development needs to be

broadened beyond economic growth to include freedoms, living conditions, senses of relative
poverty
-expanded availability of food, housing, edu, healthcare
-promotion of positive freedom rather than negative freedoms

Deaton: capabilities approach: not skills, but valuable "beings" and "doings"
-being= your sate, existential, ontological
-doing= being enabled to "do your best doing"=potential
-has inspired UNDP development index, human poverty index, gender equality index

Sen: functioning and capabilities approach, not commodities

Deaton: absolute poverty: -basic level below which you will just die from lack of resources
method of measuring poverty where poverty is measured according to a set standard (the poverty
line) that rarely changes over time

living on more or less than $X per day, often calculated by calories needed per day

challenges: poverty is by nature relative and is based on social needs and standards, and the
poverty line is not adjusted enough to be accurate

relative poverty: -lack of resources to have a customary diet, living conditions

-consumption patterns are driven by society around you

Deaton: Relative Poverty: method of measuring poverty where poverty is measured by a standard
which is defined in terms of the society in which an individual lives and which therefore differs
between countries and varies over time

living on more or less than X% of the average local income (similar to gini coefficient)

challenges: essentially measures inequality within the bottom half of the income distribution and
is not an indicator of absolute well being