The Capability Approach and the Praxis of Development

Transcription

1 The Capability Approach and the Praxis of Development

2 Other books by the author: The Capability Approach: Transforming Unjust Structures (edited with M. Nebel and N. Sagovsky)

3 The Capability Approach and the Praxis of Development Séverine Deneulin

4 Séverine Deneulin 2006 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 2006 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

5 Contents List of Tables Preface and Acknowledgements vii ix Chapter 1 Development as Freedom Human well-being and freedom The freedoms of individuals Agency and political participation From development theory to praxis 12 Chapter 2 Human Well-Being and Freedom Well-being as freedom Perfectionism and liberalism Perfectionism in the capability approach Freedom and choice Central human capabilities A thick vague theory of the good A political form of liberalism Well-being and development praxis The dimension option The pragmatic option 48 Chapter 3 Freedom within Structures of Living Together Structures of living together Irreducibly social goods Expanding the evaluation space Valuation structures Socio-historical agency The sources of freedom and agency Individual and collective agency Motivations and structures of mutual concern Self-interest Social norms and identity Friendship and mutual concern Implications for development praxis 84 Chapter 4 Political Freedom and Practical Reason Exercising political freedom Participation and democracy 88 v

6 vi Contents The value of political freedom Political and market freedom Practical reason in the political community Forms of practical reasoning Deliberative democracy Principles of decision-making Finnis and Nussbaum on practical reasoning Perception of particulars Deliberation about ends and means Beyond the capability space 115 Chapter 5 From Development Theory to Practice Development theory and practice Two case studies A hermeneutical approach to development 134 Chapter 6 The Costa Rican Human Development Story Universal primary education The creation and expansion of the welfare state The crisis of the 1980s Costa Rica s socio-historical agency The National Consultation The Combo del ICE The fiscal problem 169 Chapter 7 The Dominican Republic s Narrative The emergence of the dictatorship The difficult transition to democracy The legacy of the dialectical process The Dominican Republic s socio-historical agency The Comprehensive Development Framework Cases of social reform The Social Security Reform Implications for the capability approach 207 Conclusion: The Capability Approach and the Praxis of Development 210 Notes 214 Bibliography 225 Index 237

7 List of Tables Table 5.1 GNP per capita, Table 5.2 Economic growth rates, Table 5.3 GDP per capita, Table 5.4 Structure of the economy in percentage of GDP, Table 5.5 Illiteracy rates, Table 5.6 Gross enrolment rates in second-level education, Table 5.7 Infant mortality rates, Table 5.8 Access to basic services for 1995 and Table 5.9 Public expenditure on education, Table 5.10 Public expenditure on health, Table 5.11 Public spending on health in the Dominican Republic, Table 5.12 Access to basic services for 1998 in the Dominican Republic 131 Table 5.13 Private and public provision of health expenditures in percentage of GDP (1998, 2001) 131 Table 5.14 Illiteracy rates by gender 133 Table 5.15 Urban open unemployment rates, by gender and years of schooling for Table 5.16 Various political indicators 134 Table 6.1 Illiteracy rates in Costa Rica 142 Table 6.2 Costa Rica s progress in promoting human freedoms, Table 6.3 Government revenues in Costa Rica, Table 6.4 Public debt as percentage of GDP, Table 6.5 U.S. economic assistance as a percentage of GDP, Table 6.6 Poverty and income distribution, Table 6.7 Costa Rica s structure of socio-historical agency 163 Table 6.8 Structure of tax revenues, Table 7.1 Illiteracy rate, Table 7.2 Life expectancy, Table 7.3 Infant mortality, vii

8 viii List of Tables Table 7.4 Dominican Republic s government revenues, Table 7.5 External debt, Table 7.6 Central government s revenues, Table 7.7 Tax revenues by source, Table 7.8 The Dominican Republic s structure of socio-historical agency 197

9 Preface and Acknowledgements What makes a country successful in promoting the well-being of its inhabitants? How is it that, even with equivalent amounts of resources, some countries have been more able than others to transform these resources into well-being achievements? This book does not give a blueprint of the conditions that enable countries to promote the wellbeing of their citizens, or even guidelines for possible development intervention that would foster those conditions. There is indeed no such magic potion that would put countries on track to sustainable social development. That the real world is always messier and more complicated than development theories assume is no novel discovery. Nevertheless, might it be the case that a particular theory of development could be true enough to human realities to provide a framework for action that would lead to nobody living a life lacking food, healthcare, education, employment, participation, freedom of association, freedom of expression, etc.? The approach to development put forward by Amartya Sen, known as the capability approach and summarized in Development as Freedom, has been in this sense unique in seeming to provide such a framework for action. It is becoming the consensus on both the right and the left, and in both academic and practitioner circles. The idea is amazingly simple, as often with genial ideas: consider well-being in terms of what people value being and doing, and increase their freedom to be in those ways or to do those things. To this end, increase their freedom also to participate in the life of the community and engage in public deliberation. This book seeks to address the extent to which an approach to development centred on human freedom can effectively guide action towards the removal of the many obstacles which prevent people from being and doing what they value being or doing. It especially highlights the point that, if such an approach is to be effective, it should give more explicit consideration to the historical and structural dimensions of human freedom. The freedom that a particular country possesses to promote the well-being of its citizens needs to be grounded in its own history and characteristic social structures. It is a country s narrative history which sets the conditions for its collective capability to promote human well-being. This should however not be mistaken for some historical fatalism. As the two case studies illustrate, the development ix

10 x Preface and Acknowledgements process is a complex dialectic between, on one hand, certain decisions and actions of key people and, on the other, the legacy of a country s history and its characteristic social structures. Chapters 5 and 6 have been published in a shortened version under the title Development as Freedom and the Costa Rican Human Development Story in Oxford Development Studies, 2005, 33(3/4), pp Chapter 4 has partially been published as Promoting Freedoms under Conditions of Inequalities: A Procedural Framework in the Journal of Human Development, 2005, 6(1), pp A shorter and earlier version of Chapter 2 has been published as Perfectionism, Liberalism and Paternalism in Sen and Nussbaum s Capability Approach in the Review of Political Economy, 2002, 14(4), pp I thank Taylor and Francis for permission of reproduction of these articles. I also thank Cambridge University Press for permission to reproduce part of Chapter 3 which appeared in an earlier version entitled Beyond Individual Freedom and Agency: Structures of Living Together in Sen s Capability Approach in S. Alkire, F. Comim and M. Qizilbash (eds) The Capability Approach: Concepts, Measures and Application. The arguments of this book are greatly indebted to Frances Stewart s guidance and to her pragmatic eye. I cannot remember how many times I saw pencilled next to an abstract philosophical paragraph What does this mean for the real world?. She took me down from the Upper Reading Room of the Bodleian Library where I used to sit for hours studying books on Aristotelian ethics and looking at the Oxford spires from the window. I am also very grateful to Laurence Whitehead for his insightful comments on the analysis of the two case studies, and to Barbara Harris-White for drawing my attention to the importance of the politics of development policy-making. Numerous people have offered special advice at different stages. Henry S. Richardson carefully read the theoretical part, and helped me integrate the philosophical underpinnings of development with its praxis. John Alexander, Francesco Biondo, John Broome, Flavio Comim, Rosario Espinal, John Finnis, Thomas Pogge and Fernando Sánchez discussed different chapters. David Wiggins and Joseph Raz offered invaluable encouragement at difficult stages of my doctoral dissertation. I also thank Mozaffar Qizilbash and Rosemary Thorp, my examiners, for saving the empirical part from many mistakes and helping me to better integrate it with the theoretical framework. I am very grateful to Queen Elizabeth House for providing an office space which has given me the necessary intellectual and friendship community so precious during the lonely research enterprise. Con-

11 Preface and Acknowledgements xi versations and great laughter with my officemate, Marcia Hartwell, certainly made the writing process more cheerful than it would otherwise have been. I also thank St Antony s College for offering such a stimulating international community. Every lunch was a constant source of intellectual exchange and learning about other countries. Tiziana Torresi has especially been an invaluable interlocutor during all our discussions about the relevance of political philosophy in the struggle against oppression of all kinds. In Cambridge, I particularly thank the Von Hügel Institute and St Edmund s College for offering me a Research Associateship which enabled me to refine my arguments and turn my doctoral dissertation into a book. I was very lucky to benefit from the quietness of the White Cottage in St Edmund s College and from the community environment of the Margaret Beaufort Institute. These provided ideal conditions for intellectual work. I am grateful to Jacqueline García in Costa Rica for her friendship and also to the family Mora-Ulate for adopting me as one of their daughters during my stay there. I thank the Jesuit community in the Dominican Republic for their warm welcome, and especially Pablo Mella. The arguments of this book could not have been framed without our long discussions about development and social justice. Special thanks go to two particular persons without whom this monograph would never have been completed. Sabina Alkire set a precedent at Queen Elizabeth House by exploring the philosophical foundations of development theory, and has given me invaluable suggestions and comments on drafts of both my doctoral dissertation and this monograph. She also enabled me to finance my fieldwork in Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic through a grant from the Government of the Netherlands in the context of the research project Responding to the Values of the Poor. Her friendship beyond our academic conversations has been most precious. Nick Townsend went very patiently through every word of the manuscript, checking the correctness of the English and above all testing the soundness of each argument. His careful comments challenged me a lot and taught me about the importance of clarity slowly achieved over roughness quickly reached. His friendship and care sustained me. My final thanks are to my family, and especially my father s support since the day I left high school to go to university and then take a path rather different from the social expectations of the family s historical narrative in a rural village in Flanders fields.