A balanced view of development as freedom

Amartya Sen, in his most recent book Development as Freedom, argues that expansion of human freedom should both be viewed as the primary end and the principle means of development. This paper provides an overview and a critical scrutiny of the Senian perspective from the point of view of an economist. First, I discuss to what extent Sen’s normative theory of development justifies a particular focus on inequality and poverty. Second, I look at Sen’s perspective on democratic reasoning as the constructive vehiecle for valuational exercises, and in particular how this perspective fits with the recent human development framework of UNDP. Third, I discuss the relevance of markets within the freedom approach, and fourth I review some of the most important empirical interconnections between different freedoms studied by Sen. ∗Thanks to Amartya Sen and Andreas Føllesdal for valuable comments on several of the topics reviewed. The author of course remains responsible for all the views expressed in the paper.