1) What is development?

Sen describes development as a process of expanding freedoms that people can enjoy. He makes sure to clarify that freedom is the vehicle to achieve development and describes manifestations of freedom that can contribute to development. Specifically, he mentions the rise of personal incomes, industrialization, and GNP growth as means to expanding freedoms.

2) Is this an expansive view or narrower view of development?

This is an expansive view of development as Sen points out that growth of GNP, rise of personal incomes, and industrialization are narrower views of development. This implies that the expansive view of development requires expanding freedoms at every level rather than targeting specific economic or social means.

3) What are some forms of unfreedom?

Sen notes that there are a variety of unfreedoms that people experience across the world. Famines and undernutrition in particular occur and result in the denial of a basic human freedom to survive. He mentions the idea of the “Lee thesis” where authoritarian governments deny basic civil rights and political liberty as means of stimulating economies and subsequently underlines the existence of empirical evidence that dispels the thesis. Furthermore, he points out how many people have little access to freedom of speech, healthcare, education, employment, and clean sanitary arrangements.

4) Why is free and sustainable agency a major engine of development?

Sen denotes “agent” as someone who acts and brings about change and whose achievements can be judged in terms of her own values and objectives. In other words, free and sustainable agency is crucial so individuals can act as participants in economic, social, and political actions. Sen makes the argument that this free agency has a great impact on public policy issues ranging from discouraging policy bossing using “targeting” to attempts of dissociating the government from the process of democratic scrutiny and rejection.

5) What does Amartya Sen say about being generically against markets?

Sen says that being generically against markets is almost as odd as being generically against conversations. Here, he is arguing that free markets are inherently part of the way human beings in society live and interact with each other. However, he also points out that markets can be manipulated and perversed the same way that conversations can be foul and cause problems for others. Essentially, he says that the contribution to economic growth from markets can only be made possible after acknowledging that the freedom to interchange words, ideas, gifts and goods is precisely what allows markets to be a tool of economic growth.

6) What was the story of Kader Mia? What was the penalty of his economic unfreedom

Kader Mia was a muslim daily laborer who had appeared through Sen’s gate bloody and screaming. He had been knifed in the back as a result of communal riots between Hindus and Muslims after coming to work for a neighboring house in hopes of making a living to feed his family. The penalty of his economic unfreedom was death.

7) Who were Condorcet and Malthus? What were their primary arguments regarding development and fertility?

Condorcet was an 18th century French rationalist and Thomas Robert Malthus was his contemporary. Condrocet expected that fertility rates would come down as a result of more security, more education, and greater freedoms of reflected decisions. Malthus argued that there was no reason to suppose that anything besides economic difficulty would stop future persons from rearing healthy families.