We live in a world of unprecedented opulence. There have also been remarkable changes beyond the economic sphere. Concepts of human rights and political liberty are now very much a part of the prevailing rhetoric. People live much longer than ever before. Also, the different regions of the globe are now more closely linked, 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 poverty, famine, hunger, violation of basic liberties, neglect of the interests of women, and threats to our environment and to the sustainability of our economic and social lives.

Overcoming these problems is a central part of the exercise of development. We have to recognize the role of different freedoms 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 is inescapably constrained by our social, political, and economic opportunities. We need to recognize the centrality of individual freedom and the force of social influences on the extent and reach of individual freedom. To counter the problems we face, we have to see individual freedom as a social commitment.

Expansion of Freedom

I view the expansion of freedom both as the primary end and as the principal means of development. Development consists of removing various types of unfreedoms that leave people with little choice and little opportunity of exercising their reasoned agency.

Development is a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy. Focusing on human freedoms contrasts with narrower views of development, such as identifying development with the growth of gross national product, the rise in personal incomes, industrialization, technological advance, or social modernization. Growth of GNP or of individual incomes can, of course, be very important as means to expanding the freedoms enjoyed by the members of the society. But freedoms also depend on facilities for education and health care, the liberty to participate in public discussion and scrutiny.

Development requires the removal of major sources of unfreedom: poverty as well as tyranny, poor economic opportunities as well as systemic social deprivation, neglect of public facilities as well as intolerance or overactivity of repressive states.

Freedoms are not only the primary ends of development, they are also among its principal means. Political freedoms in the form of free speech and elections help to promote economic security. Social opportunities in the form of education and health facilities facilitate economic participation. Economic facilities in the form of opportunities for participation in trade and production can help to generate personal abundance as well as public resources for social facilities. Freedoms of different kinds can strengthen one another.

This freedom-centered understanding of economics and of the process of development is very much an agent-oriented view. With adequate social opportunities, individuals can effectively shape their own destiny and help each other. They need not be seen primarily as passive recipients of the benefits of cunning development programs. There is a strong rationale for recognizing the positive role of free and sustainable agency—and even of constructive impatience.

What is the relationship between incomes and achievements, between commodities and capabilities, between our economic wealth and our ability to live as we would like? While there is a connection between opulence and achievements, the linkage may or may not be very strong and may be extremely contingent on other circumstances.

If we have reasons to want more wealth, we have to ask: What precisely are these reasons, how do they work, on what are they contingent, and what are the things we can “do” with more wealth? In fact, we have excellent reasons for wanting more income or wealth. This is not because income and wealth are desirable for their own sake, but because they are admirable general-purpose means for having more freedom to lead the kind of lives we have reason to value.

Uses of Wealth

The usefulness of wealth lies in the things that it allows us to do—the substantive freedoms it helps us to achieve. But this relation is neither exclusive (since there are significant influences on our lives other than wealth) nor uniform (since the impact of wealth on our lives varies with other influences). Wealth plays a crucial role in determining living conditions and the quality of life. But an adequate conception of development must go much beyond the accumulation of wealth and the growth of gross national product and other income-related variables. Without ignoring the importance of economic growth, we must look well beyond it.

The ends and means of development require examination and scrutiny for a fuller understanding of the development process; it is simply inadequate to take as our basic objective the maximization of income or wealth, which is, as Aristotle noted, “merely useful and for the sake of something else.” For the same reason, economic growth cannot sensibly be treated as an end in itself. Development has to be more concerned with enhancing the lives we lead and the freedoms we enjoy. Expanding the freedoms that we value not only makes our lives richer and more unfettered, but also allows us to be fuller social persons, exercising our own volitions and interacting with—and influencing—the world in which we live. PE

Amartya Sen is the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics and a professor at Trinity College in Cambridge, England. as341@cam.ac.uk.

ACTION: Be more prosperous by seeking out ways that you can enhance your freedoms and the freedoms of those around you.