Amartya Sen’s book Development as Freedom was written to explain the famed author’s thoughts on the role that economics can play in fixing some of the problems in the developing world. The author was the winner of the Nobel Prize for economics, and he wrote the work for the specific purpose of persuading people to look at development in a different way. Many people looked at development in terms of pure dollars and sense, but the author argued that this is not the proper way to consider it. He wrote his book mostly to his own colleagues and to those in development who took a short-sighted view of what they were engaged in. While the book is something that the public at large can consume in order to better understand the situation on the ground, the goal is mostly to write to those involved in international development to win them over to his way of thinking.
The author’s core thesis is that development is not possible without a set of freedoms that are intertwined. First, he believed that political freedom was necessary for there to be successful development. He was writing, in short, about the ways in which political corruption could stunt economic development. People need transparency and to see what is being done by the people in power all around them. In addition to that, he argued that the freedom to transact and to access credit was critical for development. Economic development is fueled by the availability of cash, and developing nations need this as much as anyone. Likewise, the author argues that people have to be brought out of poverty before they can have a chance at development. Because economic development depends in some ways on people using their talents to create things, it is not enough to start everyone out in poverty. It may be necessary to use support vehicles to bring people out of poverty before one can even begin the conversation of lifting them to economic prosperity.
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"Development As Freedom Book Review".
One of the strengths of this book is the extent to which Sen is able to use his own experiences as case studies to illustrate his points. Because the author has significant credentials and a significant understanding of the global situation, he writes from a position of high authority. He begins by making his points, then he illustrates how they play out in real life, bringing up examples from his past work. This is an excellent way to build the book so that people will believe and take to heart his points. Ultimately one has to respect the ability of the author to take rather abstract economic concepts and apply them directly to cases involving people.
Sen has worked on the ground with people who are struggling to make it, and he has worked with those who have different ideas on development. The book’s strength comes from the ability of the author to cut through some of the noise and create a relatable picture of those who are struggling and what they need. He writes of them not as sociological subjects, but rather, as people. This is an economic book, to be sure, but it also tells the story of people who have been in some ways misunderstood by the rest of the world. Because the author is able to bring the reader closer to the reality of what those people in poverty are facing, the author is able to create a work that can actually move people and motivate them to action. This book succeeds largely because when one puts it down, one not only has an answer to a problem, but also a conviction that the problem is one worth doing something about.
