Development As Freedom

Sen’s capabilities approach posits that human welfare and social development should be measured by increases in people’s “capacities.” He defines a capacity as the concrete or substantive freedom to choose a life that a person has reason to value. Capacities include but are not limited to the ability to eat sufficient and nutritional food, access education and healthcare, social acceptance, and freedom to participate in public political discussion.

An entitlement is the ability to secure “title” or ownership to something (most often food, in the context of this book). Unlike popular uses of the term, entitlements here may be earned and is not limited to benefits given by the government or by birth.

Freedom in this book refers broadly to the ability to access things necessary for survival or quality of life and make choices about them. It therefore includes liberties such as free speech and freedom of religion, as well as access to food, healthcare, and education. This freedom is “substantive” if a person can actually access it. For example, every child in a country may in theory have access to public education, but in practice some children may not have a school close enough to attend or their family may rely on them to work instead. In this case, the child lacks the substantive freedom to an education.

Functionings are realized capacities. A person may be capable of choosing among many options in their lives; functionings are what they actually choose. Since functionings are concrete and observable, they are easier to measure than theoretical capacities. If a person’s functioning is subpar and unlikely to be freely chosen, then that fact implies their capacities have been restricted.

GNP is the total value of all goods and services produced by the citizens of a country (whether domestically or abroad) in a year. It is one of the easiest ways to measure a country’s economic growth (especially per capita GNP), but Sen warns that it gives very incomplete information about the welfare of the people in the country.

Per capita means for each “head” or person. It is calculated by dividing a numerical measure by the number of people affected. For example, a country with a GNP of $300 billion and a population of 100 million has a per capita GNP of $3,000 (3,000,000,000 divided by 100,000,000). Another country with the same GNP of $300 billion but a population of only 10 million would have a per capita GNP of $30,000. Per capita gives a better picture of the overall standard of living in each country than raw GNP.

Unfreedoms are when a freedom (in the broad sense defined above) is lacking. Poverty, hunger, illiteracy, and such social ills can be conceptualized as a denial of freedom rather than a neutral state.