Transparency Guarantees
TDiscussion Paper on
Transparency Guarantees in Amartya Sen’s Development as Freedom for the National Seminar on Development as Freedom July 31-August 1 New Delhi
by Parth J Shah
Centre for Civil Society
K-36 Hauz Khas Enclave, New Delhi 110016 Tel: 2653 7456 Fax: 2651 2347 Email: parth@ccsindia.org Web: www.ccsindia.org
Transparency Guarantees
Among the five substantive freedoms, transparency guarantees receive the least amount of space in the book.1 The definition of transparency guarantees is on pages 39-40, and then an illustration of its significance on pages 184-86, where the link between transparency guarantees (rather their absence) and the East and South East Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s is established.2 This brevity of treatment in the book gives an opportunity to expand on it at this Seminar and I look forward to Professor Sen’s further thoughts on this freedom. The task of writing a background paper for discussion, in this circumstance, is likely to have me reading between the lines and probably off the page. I shall attend to the duty nonetheless. The Definition and an Example In social interactions, individuals deal with one another on the basis of some presumption of what they are being offered and what they can expect to get. In this sense, the society operates on some basic presumption of trust. Transparency guarantees deal with the need for openness that people can expect: the freedom to deal with one another under guarantees of disclosure and lucidity. When that trust is seriously violated, the lives of many people— both direct parties and third parties—may be adversely affected by the lack of openness. Transparency guarantees (including the right to disclosure) can thus be an important category of instrumental freedom. These guarantees have a clear instrumental role in preventing corruption, financial irresponsibility, and underhand dealings (pp 39-40). Professor Sen illustrates this definition with an example of
Transparency Guarantees in Amartya Sen’s Development as Freedom for the National Seminar on Development as Freedom July 31-August 1 New Delhi
by Parth J Shah
Centre for Civil Society
K-36 Hauz Khas Enclave, New Delhi 110016 Tel: 2653 7456 Fax: 2651 2347 Email: parth@ccsindia.org Web: www.ccsindia.org
Transparency Guarantees
Among the five substantive freedoms, transparency guarantees receive the least amount of space in the book.1 The definition of transparency guarantees is on pages 39-40, and then an illustration of its significance on pages 184-86, where the link between transparency guarantees (rather their absence) and the East and South East Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s is established.2 This brevity of treatment in the book gives an opportunity to expand on it at this Seminar and I look forward to Professor Sen’s further thoughts on this freedom. The task of writing a background paper for discussion, in this circumstance, is likely to have me reading between the lines and probably off the page. I shall attend to the duty nonetheless. The Definition and an Example In social interactions, individuals deal with one another on the basis of some presumption of what they are being offered and what they can expect to get. In this sense, the society operates on some basic presumption of trust. Transparency guarantees deal with the need for openness that people can expect: the freedom to deal with one another under guarantees of disclosure and lucidity. When that trust is seriously violated, the lives of many people— both direct parties and third parties—may be adversely affected by the lack of openness. Transparency guarantees (including the right to disclosure) can thus be an important category of instrumental freedom. These guarantees have a clear instrumental role in preventing corruption, financial irresponsibility, and underhand dealings (pp 39-40). Professor Sen illustrates this definition with an example of
References: CCS-ARCH Briefing Paper (2003), Keepers of Forests: Foresters or Forest Dwellers?, New Delhi: Centre for Civil Society. CCS Briefing Paper (2003), Managing Water Resources: Communities & Markets, New Delhi: Centre for Civil Society. Desai, Ashok V, ed (1998), Self-Regulation in the Civil Society, New Delhi: Centre for Civil Society. Fukuyama, Francis (1995), Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity, New York: Free Press Paperbacks. Hayek, Friedrich A (1988), The Fatal Conceit, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Klein, Daniel B, ed (1997), Reputation: Studies in the Voluntary Elicitation of Good Conduct, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Shah, Parth J, ed (2001), Do Corporations Have Social Responsibility?, New Delhi: Centre for Civil Society. Yeager, Leland B (2001), Ethics as a Social Science: The Moral Philosophy of Social Cooperation, New York: Edward Elgar Publications.