Abstract

Amartya Sen emphasises the importance of human development as an end in itself rather than its instrumental role in economic development. At the same time, however, he argues that the cultivation of basic human capabilities is more important for economic development than the various market oriented reforms that are routinely recommended to the developing world. This emphasis on human development as well as his insistence that inequality is the key issue in globalisation suggests that Sen’s work provides a reasoned case for a progressive, humanitarian agenda that can attract broad support for key pragmatic reforms at world level. Yet, there remain doubts. It might be argued that Sen’s vision amounts to little more than a pious hope and that, for all his recognition that inequality includes not just disparities of affluence but gross asymmetries in political, social and economic power, he fails to confront the realities of global dominance by a single superpower. Moreover, despite his emphasis on development as freedom, there is a sense in which Sen appears to see the main agents of change as fellow reformers in the international economic institutions.

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