In "Development as Freedom," Amartya Sen explains how, in a world of increased prosperity, millions of people living in Third World countries remain unfree. Even if they are not technically slaves, they are deprived of basic freedoms and remain constrained by economic poverty, social deprivation, political tyranny, or cultural authoritarianism. The main goal of development is to spread freedom and its 'thousand treasures' to the unfree citizens.
Freedom, as Sen compellingly argues, is both the ultimate goal of social and economic arrangements and the most effective means of achieving overall prosperity. Social institutions such as markets, political parties, legislation, justice, and media contribute to development by enhancing individual freedom and are sustained on their behalf by social values. Values, institutions, development, and freedom are interconnected, and Sen links them in an elegant analytical framework. By asking 'What is the relationship between our collective economic wealth and our individual ability to live as we would like?', incorporating individual freedom as a social commitment in his analysis, Sen allows economics to re-engage with the social foundation of individual well-being and freedom.
