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.


The New York Times, Richard Bernstein
...[a] thoughtful, expansive, sober but not easily accessible reflection on the relationship between economic well-being and political freedom.


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


From Kirkus Reviews
Economics meets philosophy in this wide-ranging manifesto that identifies freedom as the agent of universal development as well as its goal. Sen, the 1998 Nobel laureate in economics, points out, among many things, that there has never been famine in functioning democracies, including modern India, Botswana, and Zimbabwe (democratic officeholders, unlike colonial functionaries or dictators, are obliged to respond to impending shortages). High per capita income does not necessarily mean longer life (poor residents of Kerala, India, can expect to live longer than richer American blacks). In much of the world, gender inequality causes distorted male-female ratios (thus, there are ``missing women''). Sen analyzes a myriad of such considerations and offers a thoughtful synthesis of welfare economics, political principles, and ethics. He asks fundamental questions, challenges common assumptions, and takes on diverse shibboleths. Lest you think a statement like ``low income is clearly one of the major causes of poverty'' is foolishly simplistic, hold on as he proceeds to demonstrate that there are other important causes for capability deprivation,'' as he characterizes poverty. ``Human development . . . is an ally of the poor,'' he says. ``It is an indication of the topsy-turvy world in which we live that the school-teacher or the nurse feels more threatened by financial conservatism than does the army general.'' The lucid insights are abundant as Sen marshals scores of thinkers from Aristotle to Rabindranath Tagore, Confucius to Bentham. His text is, as well, a sly review of his contemporaries and a sagacious reappraisal of Adam Smith. Casual readers may find rough going with a lexicon like ``complemantarity'' or ``chosen functioning vector,'' but the expansive discussion will surely attract contemplative public policy practitioners. This learned book, more diagnostic than prescriptive, convinces us of freedom's value and utility in economic development. Less clear: how to bring freedom about in the world. Sen's book must nevertheless be seen as a seminal and influential text for students and makers of policy. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"Fascinating. . . . The overall argument [is] eloquent and probing." --The New York Times

"A new approach . . . refreshing, thoughtful, and human. Sen's optimism and no-nonsense proposals leave one feeling that perhaps there is a solution." --Business Week

"The . . . perspective that Mr. Sen describes and advocates has great attractions.  Chief among them is that, by cutting through the sterile debate for or against the market, it makes it easier to ask sharper questions about public policy." --The Economist


Review
"Fascinating. . . . The overall argument [is] eloquent and probing." --The New York Times

"A new approach . . . refreshing, thoughtful, and human. Sen's optimism and no-nonsense proposals leave one feeling that perhaps there is a solution." --Business Week

"The . . . perspective that Mr. Sen describes and advocates has great attractions.  Chief among them is that, by cutting through the sterile debate for or against the market, it makes it easier to ask sharper questions about public policy." --The Economist


Book Description
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.



From the Publisher
A conversation with Amartya Sen, author of Development as FreedomQ: Please explain the premise of your book.
A: The premise of the book is that human freedom is not only the primary end of development, it is also the principle means. Development consists in enhancing the quality of human life and increasing the substantive freedoms we enjoy, and therefore freedom is constructive in development (that is, the process of development is the process of making our freedoms larger). But, in addition, freedom of one kind tends to facilitate freedoms of other kinds. For example, economic opportunities, political liberties and social facilities strengthen each other, in addition to each being directly important in increasing the individuals' freedoms.Q: How does your theory of development differ from conventional thinking?
A: It revives a line of thinking that was extremely important in the reasoning of pioneers of economic and social analysis, in particular Adam Smith, Condorcet, John Stuart Mill, and others. In fact, the motivation of economic studies from the earliest times (Aristotle in Greece, and Kautilya in India, both in the third century BC) was deeply concerned with enhancing the quality of human life and increasing the options we have. This is true even of the medieval beginnings of modern economics, for example in the writings of William Petty, one of the founders of the Royal Society of London. While they were all concerned with material prosperity, they saw it as a means to other -- bigger -- ends. The idea that development consists just of an increase in GNP or GDP or real national income per head, or some other commodity indicator like that, is basically a vulgarization of the vision that motivated the origin of the development of economics. What the book tries to do is to reclaim that original version and to place the more immediate variables in a bigger context, in which they could be judged in terms of what they manage to do for human life and liberty. Q: How can the theory presented in this book be practically applied to developing nations?
A: This is primarily a question of having an adequate reach and balance in policy-making in developing countries. For example, to try to judge democracy or political liberty entirely (or primarily) in terms of their effects on economic growth would be a mistake, since liberty and political freedom are themselves valuable and do not have to be justified in terms of their indirect effects. In this sense the approach of the book goes against a great deal of policy thinking. But the book also discusses why the indirect effects are also important, since political freedom can reinforce economic opportunities, and vice versa. For example, political freedom gives voice to the vulnerable sections of the population and provides them with the power to demand and receive protective support in times of emergency crisis. The fact that no famine has ever taken place in a country that is democratic and has multi-party politics and a free media, is merely illustrative of this connection. To take another illustration, the enhancement of social opportunities through public arrangements for school education, is not only directly enhancing the capabilities of the people (which is valuable in itself), but it also increases their ability to participate in economic activities, especially in a globalizing economic world.Q: Can the concepts in your book be applied to U.S. inner cities? If so, how?
A: Indeed quite a lot of the book does deal with deprivation in rich countries. When we shift our focus from income per head, which makes the relatively poor in America look relatively rich in the world context, and concentrate instead on such matters as survival chances to the later ages, we see that the relatively deprived in America are also relatively deprived in the world. The Chinese, the Indians in the better provided states, the Sri Lankans, and others have a much larger chance of living to later ages than do, say, African-Americans as a general group. African-Americans in inner cities often do substantially worse in terms of survival than the poorest people in some of the countries with reasonable arrangements for school education and health care. In fact, in many U.S. cities (such as Washington, DC) life expectancy at birth is in general lower than that in India and Pakistan.It is necessary to look directly at those things which motivate our search for economic prosperity. Economics is not only concerned with generating income, but also making good use of that income to enhance our living and our freedoms. The general lesson has a major bearing on policy issues (such as medical insurance, health care, school education, etc.) related to the U.S. inner cities.
Q: You have made some shocking calculations regarding global inequality, including the startling figure of 100 million "missing" women. Would you please explain this number and what you mean by "missing?"
A: What the estimates of "missing women" do is to calculate the number of women who would have been there had women had similar relative chances of survival.Given similar care, women tend to live longer than men and indeed have lower age-specific mortality than men almost throughout their lives (this is ultimately a biological difference, and even female fetuses have a lower miscarriage rate than do male fetuses). So even though more boys are born than girls, by the time we look at full-grown population, women tend to out-number men very considerably (by 5 or 6%) given symmetric care. However, when women receive less care in terms of medical attention, nutritional arrangements and so on, women's mortality rates are artificially elevated in comparison with men. As a result, in a number of countries across Asia and North Africa, there are fewer women than men. In China there are six percent fewer women than men; in India seven percent fewer; in Pakistan nine percent fewer. This is not a biological difference. For example, in any part of these societies where women do receive symmetric care, we see similar patterns of survival as in Western Europe and North America. For example, the ratio of women to men is similar in Kerala in India (about 5% more) as it is in Europe and North America (and would have been almost exactly the same if we discount the greater male mortality in the wars fought by Europeans and Americans in the past). The number of "missing women" estimates the millions of women who would have been there if the mortality rates of women, compared with male mortality rates, were what we would expect had they received systematic care. This tends to produce a massive number of "missing women." The figure of 100 million that you mention comes from that. There have been other -- more conservative -- estimates following mine, including a much smaller figure by Professor Ansley Coale, but his figure too is 60 million
"missing women." Another more intermediate figure presented by Dr. Stefan Klasen places it around 90 million. No matter which particular technical estimate we accept, these are very large numbers and reflect a striking aspect of the most elementary deprivation suffered by women in a very substantial part of the world.It is important to recognize that this is not just a matter of poverty. In sub-Saharan Africa, while the ratio of women to men is not as high as in North America or Europe (or as in Kerala in India), still there are 2% more women than men. Indeed my 100 million figure was based on taking sub-Saharan Africa as the "standard" in calculating the number of "missing women" (in contrast with what would have been the case had the ratio of female-to-male survival rates been the same in Asia or North Africa as it is in sub-Saharan Africa).


From the Inside Flap
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.


From the Back Cover
"Fascinating. . . . The overall argument [is] eloquent and probing." --The New York Times

"A new approach . . . refreshing, thoughtful, and human. Sen's optimism and no-nonsense proposals leave one feeling that perhaps there is a solution." --Business Week

"The . . . perspective that Mr. Sen describes and advocates has great attractions. Chief among them is that, by cutting through the sterile debate for or against the market, it makes it easier to ask sharper questions about public policy." --The Economist


About the Author
Amarty Sen is Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1988, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Science.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
We live in a world of unprecedented opulence of a kind that would have been hard even to imagine a century or two ago. There have also been remarkable changes beyond the economic sphere. The twentieth century has established democratic and participatory governance as the preeminent model of political organization. Concepts of human rights and political liberty are now very much a part of the prevailing rhetoric. People live much longer, on an average, than ever before. Also, the different regions of the globe are now more closely linked than they have ever been. This is so not only in the fields of trade, commerce and communication, but also in terms of interactive ideas and ideals.

And yet we also live in a world with remarkable deprivation, destitution and oppression. There are many new problems as well as old ones, including persistence of poverty and unfulfilled elementary needs, occurrence of famines and widespread hunger, violation of elementary political freedoms as well as of basic liberties, extensive neglect of the interests and agency of women and worsening threats to our environment and to the sustainability of our economic and social lives. Many of these deprivations can be observed, in one form or another, in rich countries as well as poor ones.

Overcoming these problems is a central part of the exercise of development. We have to recognize, it is argued here, the role of freedoms of different kinds in countering these afflictions. Indeed, individual agency is, ultimately, central to addressing these deprivations. On the other hand, the freedom of agency that we have individually is inescapably qualified and constrained by the social, political and economic opportunities that are available to us. There is a deep complementarity between individual agency and social arrangements. It is important to give simultaneous recognition to the centrality of individual freedom and to the force of social influences on the extent and reach of individual freedom. To counter the problems that we face, we have to see individual freedom as a social commitment. This is the basic approach that this work tries to explore and examine.

Expansion of freedom is viewed, in this approach, both as the primary end and as the principal means of development. Development consists of the removal of various types of unfreedoms that leave people with little choice and little opportunity of exercising their reasoned agency. The removal of substantial unfreedoms, it is argued here, is constitutive of development. However, for a fuller understanding of the connection between development and freedom we have to go beyond that basic recognition (crucial as it is). The intrinsic importance of human freedom, in general, as the preeminent objective of development has to be distinguished from the instrumental effectiveness of freedoms of particular kinds to promote freedoms of other kinds.

The linkages between different types of freedoms are empirical and causal, rather than constitutive and compositional. For example, there is strong evidence that economic and political freedoms help to reinforce one another, rather than being hostile to one another (as they are sometimes taken to be). Similarly, social opportunities of education and health care, which may require public action, complement individual opportunities of economic and political participation and also help to foster our own initiatives in overcoming our respective deprivations. If the point of departure of the approach lies in the identification of freedom as the main object of development, the reach of the policy analysis lies in establishing the empirical linkages that make the viewpoint of freedom coherent and cogent as the guiding perspective of the process of development.

This work outlines the need for an integrated analysis of economic, social and political activities, involving a variety of institutions and many interactive agencies. It concentrates particularly on the roles and interconnections between certain crucial instrumental freedoms, including economic opportunities, political freedoms, social facilities, transparency guarantees, and protective security. Societal arrangements, involving many institutions (the state, the market, the legal system, political parties, the media, public interest groups and public discussion forums, among others) are investigated in terms of their contribution to enhancing and guaranteeing the substantive freedoms of individuals, seen as active agents of change, rather than as passive recipients of dispensed benefits.

The book is based on five lectures I gave as a Presidential Fellow at the World Bank during the fall of 1996. There was also one follow-up lecture in November 1997 dealing with the overall approach and its implications. I appreciated the opportunity and the challenge involved in this task, and I was particularly happy that this happened at the invitation of President James Wolfensohn, whose vision, skill and humanity I much admire. I was privileged to work closely with him earlier as a Trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and more recently, I have also watched with great interest the constructive impact of Wolfensohn's leadership on the Bank.

The World Bank has not invariably been my favorite organization. The power to do good goes almost always with the possibility to do the opposite, and as a professional economist, I have had occasions in the past to wonder whether the Bank could not have done very much better. These reservations and criticisms are in print, so I need not make a "confession" of harboring skeptical thoughts. All this made it particularly welcome to have the opportunity to present at the Bank my own views on development and on the making of public policy.

This book, however, is not intended primarily for people working at or for the Bank, or other international organizations. Nor is it just for policy makers and planners of national governments.
Rather, it is a general work on development and the practical reasons underlying it, aimed particularly at public discussion. I have rearranged the six lectures into twelve chapters, both for clarity and to make the written version more accessible to nonspecialist readers. Indeed, I have tried to make the discussion as nontechnical as possible, and have referred to the more formal literature--for those inclined in that direction--only in endnotes. I have also commented on recent economic experiences that occurred after my lectures were given (in 1996), such as the Asian economic crisis (which confirmed some of the worst fears I had expressed in those lectures).

In line with the importance I attach to the role of public discussion as a vehicle of social change and economic progress (as the text will make clear), this work is presented mainly for open deliberation and critical scrutiny. I have, throughout my life, avoided giving advice to the "authorities." Indeed, I have never counseled any government, preferring to place my suggestions and critiques--for what they are worth--in the public domain. Since I have been fortunate in living in three democracies with largely unimpeded media (India, Britain, and the United States), I have not had reason to complain about any lack of opportunity of public presentation. If my presentation here arouses any interest, and leads to more public discussion of these vital issues, I would have reason to feel well rewarded.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Called "the conscience keeper" of world economics by one Indian newspaper, Dr. Amartya Sen won the 1998 Noble Prize in Economic Science with this humane & decisive work. The premise of the volume is deceptively simply: The relationship of economic wealth and the ability to live as one likes seems to be obvious; but the real world issues that it raises in economic development and public policy are daunting and complicated. Securing individual freedom at the center of his analysis of the global economy, Dr. Sen avoids the facile solutions of isms. His optimistic, yet tough-minded message has made this book one of the most influential in the past decade among academics and opinion makers.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Development as Freedom is a general exposition of the economic ideas and analyses of Amartya Sen, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Science. This brilliant and indispensable treatise compellingly analyzes the nature of contemporary economic development from the perspective of human freedom. Freedom, Sen persuasively argues, is at once the ultimate goal of economic life and the most efficient means of realizing general welfare. It is a good to be enjoyed by the world's entire population. Drawing on moral and political philosophy and technical economic analysis, this work gives the nonspecialist reader powerful access to Sen's paradigm-altering vision and vividly shows how he, in the words of the Nobel Prize committee, has both "restored an ethical dimension to the discussion of economic problems" and "opened up new fields of study for subsequent generations of researchers."

To a world divided between those who fear the ruthlessness of the free market under prevailing conditions of global capitalism and those who fear the terror of authoritarian states that stifle individual liberty as well as initiative, Development as Freedom presents a necessary intellectual and moral framework of analysis and scrutiny. By rigorously addressing one of the largest questions of all--"What is the relation between our economic wealth and our ability to live as we would like?"--Sen allows economics once again, as it did in the time of Adam Smith, to address the social basis of individual well-being and freedom. He also confronts the human dilemma that "despite unprecedented increases in overall opulence, the contemporary world denies elementary freedoms to vast numbers--perhaps even the majority--of people." This is a landmark work that shows how in individual human freedom--the exclusive possession, Sen shows, of no particular nation, region or historical, intellectual or religious tradition--lies the capacity for political participation, economic development and social progress.

FROM THE CRITICS

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 policy--only one child per family--has 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 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

Expanding upon the ideas which led to the 1998 Nobel Prize in economics, Sen (Cambridge) analyzes the nature of modern economic development to diminish the "capability deprivation" of poverty from the perspective of human freedom as the ultimate goal of, and most efficient means of optimizing, economic life. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

James North - Nation

Sen's work is indispensableto understanding how to confront the number-one problem in the world today: glaring, and increasing, global inequality. Development as Freedom is Sen's first extended effort to reach a general audience...one of the most important thinkers of our time.

Avishai Margalit - New Republic

Amartya Sen has written a noble book on freedom—real freedom, and it's relation to economic development. Sen does much to rehabilitate the idea of real freedom from its debased history.

The Independent

This is economics that should be read: not merely for the elegance of its arguments or the wisdom of its judgements, but for the deep and burnished humanity that animates it.Read all 6 "From The Critics" >

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