SUMMARY OF THE DEVELOPMENT AS FREEDOM BY AMARTYA KUMAR SEN

INTRODUCTION: DEVELOPMENT AS FREEDOM

 The meaning of development is a process of having the freedom to expand that will give people the
enjoyment of using it. With the narrow viewing of this development, the views that contrary to the human
freedoms are identifying the growth of gross national product, the rise in personal incomes, the
industrialization or technological advancement, or social modernization.
 When there is an increase in the GNP or the Gross National Product or such, the individual incomes, it
gives way to expanding the freedom that will have a purpose that the members of the society to enjoy. In
determining freedom, some other factors that the freedom can depend on, are with the use of social and
economic arrangements that pertains to having rights to access the education and health facilities, as well as
political and civil rights that can let the people to participate in a public discussion.
 If the freedom will make the development to have advancements, then this should be use as a main
objective that the viewing of the development to direct the attention on expanding freedoms as it plays an
important part in the process of development.
 To have a development, there are main sources that should be removed in the society, such as the poverty,
the oppressive government ruling, and the abandon of the public facilities. These main sources are because
of the imposed restrictions and violations on freedom by the authoritarian regimes that results of taking
away the freedom of the people to satisfy their hunger, take sufficient nutrients, clean facilities, clothes and
shelters.
 In the effectiveness and interconnections, the two distinct reasons are the evaluative reason and effective
reason that makes the freedom a central in the process of development. The evaluative reason is a progress
that assess whether the freedoms of the people are enhanced while on the other hand, the effective reason is
the achievement of development that is dependent on the free agency of people.
 Through interconnections, the free and sustainable agency is the major engine that the development has in
order for the process of the development to be effective and for the people to enjoy its usefulness to them.
This free agency isn’t the only one that constitutive in itself, but also helps the other free agencies to keep
strengthening its power or standing.
 For the illustrations that depicts the political freedom and quality of life, the first illustration is how the
growth of the GNP on some certain freedoms like liberty of political participation or the opportunities to
receive the basic education is valuable to the development and among to the constituent components of the
development. In the second illustration, it is about the disparity between income per head and the freedom
of individuals to live a long life and being well. As the development analysis is being relevant to richer
countries, such intergroup like Africans Americans contrasts within the richer countries that can use as a
way to distinguish the importance of understanding the difference between those that are development and
underdevelopment. In the third illustration, it is about the role of markets in the process of development
with the exchange of words, goods, or gifts, is a normal thing to do as human beings live and interact with
 one another if and only if they are stopped by the regulation, and rejecting the freedom to participate in the
labor market is one of the ways to keep the people to subjection.
 In the recollection of the author of this book, because of the economic unfreedom, a man named Kader Mia
who don’t have a choice but to go to those hostile area in search for finding job even with a little income as
his family couldn’t survive without it.
 In organizations and values, there are many illustrations of differences which also significant to viewing the
development for the process of expanding the substantive freedoms that has connections with one another.
In this book will investigate the development process in economic, social, and political considerations.
 French rationalist Condorcet expects that the fertility rates would go down with “the progress of reason”
but according to his contemporary, Thomas Robert Malthus have a different viewing to this progress of
reason as he argued “there is no reason that anything beside the difficulty of obtaining in the necessaries of
life should indispose such greater number of persons to marry early.”
 In the institutions and instrumental freedoms, the perceptible five types of freedom which are political
freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, and protective security. In
each of these types of freedom, this will help the people to advance their general capability in the way of
having development.
 In the concluding remark, the political freedom, economic facilities, and social opportunities are the
freedom from different kinds which can strengthen one another. Through these three freedoms helps to
promote economic security, generate personal abundance and public resources, and facilitate economic
participation.

INSIGHTS FOR INTRODUCTION:

The introduction of Development as Freedom has clearly stated which should be discussed in this book and
expressly points out his arguments about how a real freedom of a human will contribute to expanding the
development that not only one human can enjoy, but also the other members of the society. The author shows his
narrower view of developments, such as identifying the growth of gross national product, the rise in personal
income, industrialization, technological advancement, or social modernization which are contrary to human
freedoms. With little access to political, economic and social freedom, the people will really have to struggle
because of the opportunities that limits them to get much more than what they anticipated to have for their
education, health, status in life, and the liberty to participate in public discussions like debates. 

If you have a not enough standings in life like having a good background with high education and achievements, this
will lead you in a path that considered to be a trial and error, which means entering different methods you see along
finding a job to get high income will depends on how the company or some organizations look for your application
that even if it is your knowledge and skills is fitted right with their description on that position you're applying for,
as long as you don't have what they wanted to have in an employee, it is an impossible dream you couldn't get.
In this reality, if the imposed restrictions managed by the authoritarian regimes were about to be removed, the
freedom of the members in the society would have the freedom where they can enjoy and not worried again about
the limitations, they have been following for so long in afraid that the authoritarian regimes may take away even
their little access in significant things like the freedom in political, economic and social opportunities.

As long as those government ruling oppressed the freedom of the people that causes to have a little access on it or
not making effective use of it, there will always be a poverty, corrupt systems, and lack in sanitary facilities in which
satisfying people's hungriness, clothing and sheltering, or even the rights as a member of the society wouldn't attain
the main objective of development and that is to expanding the freedom for them to enjoy.

CHAPTER 1: THE PERSPECTIVE OF FREEDOM (page 36-51)

 For the possibility of getting more income which recounted from the conversation in the Sanskrit text
“Brihadaranyaka Upanishad”, there is a woman named Maitreyee who is with her husband, Yajnavalkya,
wondering how far would the wealth help them get what they wanted to have. Maitreyee have a thought
that what if the world with the people’s wealth is in her hands, she may also obtain immortality but, her
husband, show his disagreement that it is impossible thing that the life of the people will be her life and no
hope to getting the immortality by wealth.
 In the question of Maitreyee to her husband, “What should I do with that by which I do not become
immortal?” illustrates the human predicament and the limitations of the material world which these two
shows another aspect that has an interest to the economics and understanding the nature of development.
 The issue in the life of Maitreyee is not all about wealth but about the capability to live long and obtain a
good life while being alive, and these things are what most of us desired to have.
 At the beginning of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle noted that “wealth is evidently not the good we are
seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else” on which the wealth lies to things we
wanted to achieve – the substantive freedom, the influences and impacts to our lives varies with other
influences, as the role of the wealth is relevant in determining the living conditions and the quality of life.
 In the development, its ends and the means require to have a careful examination that will give fuller
understanding of the development process, as Aristotle noted “merely useful and for the sake of
something else” that shows how an individual do something without particular reason to.
 In the forms of unfreedom, some varieties of the unfreedom that many people across the world suffers are
famines in particular regions which denies the basic necessities that the human needs to survive, the
undernutrition cause by the famines may affect the humans, a little access to health care, and even the
unsanitary facilities.
 In different countries of the world, there has been a denial in terms of political liberty and civil rights,
which sometimes, claimed as to helping to stimulate the economic growth and good for rapid economic
development.
 With the working of democracy and political rights, will help to prevent such things like famines and other
economic disasters to causing a greater bad outcomes in the society.
 The difference between how the power of Authoritarian rulers and the Democratic Government exercised is
that the Authoritarian rulers lacks in making timely measures to the famines while the Democratic
Government is necessary to win the elections and will have to face the public criticisms. Despite the
criticisms, the Democratic Government still have strong incentives that drives them to take measures in
averting the famines and other economic disasters.
 About the famines, it occurs in colonial territories, one-party states, or military dictatorships. In align with
this statement, the two countries that lead the “famine league” are North Korea and Sudan as both are clear
to be the examples of dictatorial rule.
 The political liberty and civil freedoms are important on their own and has no need to be justified indirectly
from their effects on the economy. But the people who don’t have political liberty or civil rights are at the
position of disadvantage in leading their lives and the opportunity in participating to the crucial decisions
regarding the public affairs.
 In processes and opportunities, the unfreedom can arise through the process of violating the vote privileges
and rights, or through the opportunities like how the people get what they would minimally achieve that
makes it unfair to the others who wanted to have it, even if it is a minimal achievement by that people.
 The process aspect and the opportunity aspect have a substantial contrast that can pursue with different
levels and necessary to avoid using the attention only to procedures like not worrying those disadvantaged
people who suffers from the deprivation of substantive opportunities or not worrying in the nature of
processes for bringing the opportunities or such, the freedom that the people have.
 In two roles of freedom, the attention of expanding the capabilities of a person to leading a kind of life they
value and have the reason to value, can be enhanced through the means of public policy and its directions
influenced by the effective use of participatory capabilities by the public.
 In the concept of development, there are two distinct reasons for the crucial importance of individual
freedom that related to evaluation and effectiveness. The first reason is in normative approach, wherein the
substantive freedom of an individual is taken to be critical in order to evaluate the success of the society
that the members will enjoy. The second reason is that the freedom is not only the basis in determining the
success or failure of the society, but also to individual initiative and social effectiveness.
 The term “agency” used in this book is to expressed about someone who takes the action to have change,
and the achievements that can be judge in terms of its own values and objectives.
 In evaluative systems to incomes and capabilities, the approached use here focuses on a factual base that
differentiates it from traditional practical ethics and economic policy analysis, such as economic, utilitarian,
libertarian, and many more.
 With this kind of approach, it shows how to not deny the deprivation of the individual capabilities that arise
because of lowness on income which can be the main reason to have illiteracy and illness, and with the
better attainment in education and good health, it makes possible to earn higher incomes.
 In poverty and inequality, there are good reasons for seeing poverty as the deprivation of basic capabilities.
For example, the terrible phenomenon “missing women” happens in South Asia, West Asia, North Africa
and China. With this phenomenon, the analysis is use with the demographic, medical and social
information.
 The extent of the deprivation for particular groups in rich countries can be comparable to the so-called third
world or those poor countries. As shown in the figure 1.1 and 1.2, the per capita income of African
Americans in the United States is considerably lower than the white people but compared to the people
from other countries like China, they are richer in terms of income. Through these figures, African
Americans shows how they are better when it comes to survival at low age groups. 
 This may be the case but in fact, the men in China found to go beyond the African Americans, wherein
these men survived to older age levels. This pertains to the fact that African Americans is not the only ones
that suffers from relative deprivation in income per head, and the Chinese men, living to older age.
 In freedom, capability and the quality of life, looking in the range of freedoms, it has an extensive coverage
that is sometimes seen as a problem to "operational" approach in a freedom-centered to development.
 The freedom-centered approach is similar to the concerns in "quality of life" which also concentrates on
the way of how the human life goes.
 The significant of origin of economics is motivated by the needs of studying assessment, causal influences,
and the opportunities that the people have for living a good life.
 In Aristotle's idea focuses on "flourishing" and "capability", this have similar beliefs based on the early
writings on national accounts and economic property, develop by William Petty and was followed by King
François Quesnay, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, and others.