Development as Freedom

Introduction

Sen gave the lectures on which the book is based at the World Bank in 1996–97 and published it in 1999, a year after receiving the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Against measuring development by income growth alone, he proposes the expansion of people’s “capabilities” – what they are actually able to do and to be. Political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency and protective security reinforce one another. Among his best-known theses is that no substantial famine has occurred in a functioning democracy with a free press. The book also deals with the agency of women, with markets and with the relation between human rights and cultural difference.

Connections

Builds on

• The Wealth of Nations1776 · Adam Smith

Criticizes

• A Theory of Justice1971 · John Rawls

Taken up in

• Frontiers of Justice2006 · Martha Nussbaum

More works by Amartya Sen

• 2009The Idea of Justice