Choices, development, and ethics
Rajesh Kumar Aggarwal

The Ethics of Development: From Economism to Human Development
by Des Gasper. Vistaar New Delhi. Pages 255. Rs 295.

"Development ethics" is a term that emerged in 1959 in the work of Louis-Joseph Lebret, a French economist. Nevertheless, there were important academic works such as writings by John Locke (1632-1704), Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), J. S. Mill (1806-73) and Karl Marx (1818-83) that covered such concerns without using this label. Danis Goulet (1971), Peter Berger (1974), E. F. Schumacher (1973), and Amartya Sen (1999) further developed the idea of development ethics.

The 1990s saw a growing explicit ethical thrust in forums for development policy and practice, particularly in the debates on aid, trade and development cooperation. Development ethics talks about choices that are about values and strategies.

The book is in eight chapters. The first chapter defines the origin and theme of the book, whereas, the second defines development in neutral (positive, non-evaluative meaning concerning fundamental/structural change or conscious intervention), and normative (desirable, more evaluative meaning concerning improvement or provisions of the pre-conditions for improvement) perspectives.

Chapters 3 and 4 deal with the ethics implicit in the twentieth-century mainstream discussion of development in the languages of efficiency, effectiveness and equity. The choices are often controversial and even painful, but these have to be made consciously or tacitly.

Effectiveness is a difficult criterion. During most economic interventions, some of the objectives are preset, but others become marginalised or ignored, and the judgements of effectiveness and efficiency depend upon who is included within the evaluative field of vision and with what weight. Besides the three Es: effectiveness (economic), efficiency and equity, economics should also include three Ps: participation, predictability (consistency) and procedural fairness.

Chapters 5 to 7 discuss some other key results where pure economic considerations do not suffice. Chapter 5 on violence and physical security describes that people have other concerns, besides material well-being. Chapter 6 discusses ethics on needs and basic needs. It explains the mechanism, strings and levels in needs discourse, including fulfillment of materialistic and non-materialistic needs.

Chapter 7 talks about the degree of positive freedom and the possession of valued capabilities. It gives an instance that the adjective "human" in "human development" suggests that development previously was not human centered, but interpreted predominantly as economic growth. It argues that economic growth is neither sufficient nor necessary condition for improvement in quality of life.

These chapters look upon the interpretation of development as provision of valued opportunities or of a platform for improvement. The last section of this chapter discusses Amartya Sen’s capability theory and Martha Nassbaum’s capabilities theory, which Sen later termed as just one possible concentration of his approach.

Chapter 8 discusses cultures and ethical development and points out that there is a large scope for ethical dialogue and assessment, with reference to inter-cultural differentials. Even if some values appear universal in nature, these do require local interpretations.

The book seems useful for the students and teachers of development economics.

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