Abstract
Amartya Sen's assertion that democratic institutions together with a free press provide effective protection from famine is one of the most cited and broadly accepted contributions in modern famine theory. Through a mix of qualitative and quantitative evidence, this article critically examines whether indeed democracies do provide protection from famine. The qualitative research builds on analyses of democratic political dynamics in famine situations (in Bihar 1966, Malawi 2002 and Niger 2005), whereas the quantitative research looks for cross-country correlations between political systems and famine incidents. The article calls into question the strength of the link between democracy and famine protection. Famines have indeed occurred in electoral democracies where the political dynamics at times were counterproductive in providing protection from famine. The article concludes that to fully grasp the complexities of famine, one should replace monocausal political explanations (such as democracy protects against famine) with general tools for context-specific political analysis.
La déclaration d’Amartya Sen selon lequel les institutions démocratiques et une presse libre fournissent une protection efficace contre le risque de famine est l’une des contributions les plus citées (et acceptées) dans la théorie moderne de la famine. En combinant une approche quantitative et qualitative, cet article reconsidère le point de vue de Sen. La composante qualitative du papier se base sur la dynamique de la politique démocratique dans un contexte de famine (le Bihar en 1966, le Malawi en 2002 et le Niger en 2005) tandis que la partie quantitative se penche sur des corrélations, effectuées en coupe transversale entre les systèmes politiques et les famines. Nos résultats mettent en doute la robustesse du lien entre la démocratie et la protection contre la famine. En effet, des famines se sont produites dans des démocraties lorsque la dynamique politique du moment y était contreproductive. L’article conclut en notant que le phénomène de la famine est complexe, et appelle à remplacer les explications mono-causales par des outils plus généraux et sensibles au contexte.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Banik, D. (1998) India's freedom from famine: the case of Kalahandi. Contemporary South Asia 7 (3): 265–281.
Banik, D. (2007) Starvation and India's Democracy. London: Routledge.
Bardhan, P. (2005) Democracy and Distributive Politics in India. Berkeley Paper, http://emlab.berkeley.edu/users/webfac/bardhan/papers/BardhDemoDist.pdf.
Barnett, J. and Adger, W. (2007) Climate change, human security and violent conflict. Political Geography 26 (6): 639–655.
BBC. (2005) Niger leader denies hunger claims, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4133374.stm, accessed 9 August 2005.
Beer, C. and Mitchell, N.J. (2006) Comparing nations and states – human rights and democracy in India. Comparative Political studies 39 (8): 996–1018.
Bowbrick, P. (1986) The causes of famine – a refutation of professor Sen's theory. Food Policy 11 (2): 105–124.
Brass, P.R. (1986) The political uses of crisis – the Bihar famine of 1966–1967. Journal of Asian Studies 45 (2): 245–267.
Carr, S. (2005) Assessment of the crude and under-5 mortality rates in two world vision Niger intervention zones: Maradi and Zinder. World Vision, Canada, http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/niger/uploads/w3/nutrition/WV_Maradi.doc.
Chhibber, P. and Nooruddin, I. (2004) Do party systems count? The number of parties and government performance in the Indian states. Comparative Political Studies 37 (2): 152–187.
Currie, B. (1998) Public action and its limits: Re-examining the politics of hunger alleviation in Eastern India. Third World Quarterly 19 (5): 873–892.
Currie, B. (2000) The Politics of Hunger in India: A Study of Democracy, Governance and Kalahandi's Poverty. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
De Mesquita, B., Smith, A., Siverson, M. and Morrow, J. (2003) The Logic of Political Survival. Cambridge, MA: MIT.
De Waal, A. (1990) A re-assessment of entitlement theory in the light of recent famines in Africa. Development and Change 21 (3): 469–490.
Devereux, S. (2000) Famine in the Twentieth Century. Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. ISD Working Paper 105, http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp105.pdf.
Devereux, S. (2001) Sen's entitlement approach: Critiques and counter-critiques. Oxford Development Studies 29 (3): 245–263.
Devereux, S. (2002) State of disaster – causes, consequences & policy lessons from Malawi. ActionAidMalawi, http://www.actionaid.org.uk/_content/documents/malawifamine.pdf.
Devereux, S. and Tiba, Z. (2007) Malawi's first famine, 2001–2002. In: S. Devereux (ed.) The New Famines – Why Famines Persist in an Era of Globalization. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 143–177.
DFID. (2007) Niger Fact Sheet, January, London: DFID, http://www2.dfid.gov.uk/countries/africa/niger-fact-sheet.pdf.
Diamond, L. (2000) Developing democracy in Africa: African and international imperatives. Cambridge Review of International Affairs 14 (1): 191–213.
Diamond, L. (2003) Can the whole world become democratic? Democracy, development, and international policies. Irvine, CA: Center for the Study of Democracy, University of California. Working Paper 0305, http://repositories.cdlib.org/03-05.
Diamond, L. (2008) The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World. New York: Times Book.
Drèze, J. (1999) Chapter 3 – famine prevention in India. In: J. Drèze, A. Sen and A. Hussain (eds.) The Political Economy of Hunger. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Drèze, J. and Sen, A. (1990) The Political Economy of Hunger. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
D’Souza, F. (1994) Democracy as a cure for famine. Journal of Peace Research 31 (4): 369–373.
Dyson, T. (1993) Demographic responses to famines in South Asia. IDS Bulletin 24 (4): 17–31.
Dyson, T. and Maharatna, A. (1992) Bihar famine, 1966–67 and Maharashtra drought, 1970–73 – the demographic consequences. Economic and Political Weekly 27 (26): 1325–1332.
Elahi, K.Q.I. (2006) Entitlement failure and deprivation: A critique of Sen's famine philosophy. Journal of Development Studies 42 (4): 541–558.
EM-DAT (2009) The International Emergency Disasters Database. WHO Collaborating Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, http://www.emdat.be/Database/terms.html.
Flyvbjerg, B. (2006) Five misuuderstandings about case-study research. Qualitative Inquiry 12 (2): 219–245.
Freedom House. (2008) Freedom in the World Country Rankings 1972 – 2006 http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/fiw/FIWAllScores.xls.
Howe, P. and Devereux, S. (2004) Famine intensity and magnitude scales: A proposal for an instrumental definition of famine. Disasters 28 (4): 353–372.
IRINnews. (2005) Niger: Free food needed now as millions teeter on the brick of famine, UN says, http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48128 accessed 14 July 2005.
Jana, J. (2002) Poverty rules in all polities. The Telegraph, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1021017/asp/opinion/story_1280576.asp, accessed 17 October 2002.
Kerr, R.B. (2005) Food security in Northern Malawi: Gender, kinship relations and entitlements in historical context. Journal of Southern African Studies 31 (1): 53–74.
Kula, E. (1987) The inadequacy of the entitlement approach to explain and remedy famines. The Journal of Development Studies 25 (1): 112–116.
Kydd, J., Dorward, A. and Vaughan, M. (2002) The Humanitarian Crisis in Southern Africa: Malawi. Submission to the International Development Committee, http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0000392/P346_IDC_Malawi.pdf.
Linz, J.J. and Valenzuela, A. (1994) The Failure of Presidential Democracy. Baltimore; London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Massing, M. (2003) Does democracy avert famine?. The New York Times, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800E5DD103CF932A35750C0A9659C8B63, accessed 1 March 2003.
Menken, J. and Campbell, C. (1992) Age patterns of famine-related mortality increase: Implications for long term population growth. Health Transition Review 2 (1): 91–101.
Moonen, B. and Steffen, C. (2005) Statut nutritionnel et mortalité retrospective. Geneva: MSF.
Mousseau, F. and Mittal, A. (2006) Sahel: A Prisoner of Starvation? A Case Study of the 2005 Food Crisis in Niger. Report from The Oakland Institute. California, http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/pdfs/sahel.pdf.
Myhrvold-Hanssen, T. (2003) Democracy, News Media, and Famine Prevention: Amartya Sen and the Bihar Famine of 1966–67. Paper 1–10, http://www.disasterdiplomacy.org/MyhrvoldHanssenBiharFamine.rtf.
Neumayer, E. and Plümper, T. (2007) Famine Mortality, Rational Political Inactivity, and International Food Aid. LSE PSPE Working Paper no. 2, http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/government/PSPE/pdf/PSPE_WP2_07.pdf.
Newport, F. (2006) Little impact of Katrina on Bush's overall job ratings. Gallup News Service, http://www.gallup.com/poll/24283/Little-Impact-Katrina-Bushs-Overall-Job-Ratings.aspx.
OCHA. (2005) Niger 2005 – Flash Appeal. Geneva: OCHA, http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/SKAR-6CJAQP?OpenDocument, accessed 23 May 2005.
Osmani, S. (1995) The entitlement approach to famine: An assessment. In: K. Basu, P. K. Pattanaik and K. Suzumura (eds.) Choice, Welfare, and Development: A Festschrift in Honour of Amartya K. Sen. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Paldam, M. (2006) P1 radio interview. 1 November (In Danish), http://www.dr.dk/P1/Krause/Udsendelser/2006/10/25115519.htm.
Rubin, O. (2008a) Contemporary famine analysis – from causal theories to general frameworks. PhD dissertation 2008/6. Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen.
Rubin, O. (2008b) The Malawi 2002 famine – destitution, democracy and donors. Nordic Journal of African Studies 17 (1): 47–65.
Rubin, O. (2009a) The entitlement approach – a case for framework development rather than demolition. Journal of Development Studies 45 (4): 621–640.
Rubin, O. (2009b) The Niger famine – a collapse of entitlements and democratic responsiveness. Journal of Asian and African Studies 44 (3): 279–298.
Rummel, J. (2007) The Blue Book of Freedom. Nashville, TN: Cumberland House Publishing.
Schmidt, S. (2001) Is small beautiful? The significance of decentralization and local self-government in the context of recent processes of democratization in Africa, http://www.kas.za/Publications/SeminarReports/Traditionalparticipation/SCHMIDT.pdf.
Sen, A. (1981) Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlements and Deprivation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sen, A. (1982) Food battles: Conflicts in the access to food. The 12th Coromandel Lecture; December, New Delhi.
Sen, A. (1990) Public action to remedy hunger. Tanco Memorial Lecture: 1–15, http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/hunger/general/1990/0802public.htm.
Sen, A. (1999) Democracy as a universal value. Journal of Democracy 10 (3): 3–17.
Sen, A. (2003) Democracy and its global roots. New Republic 229 (14): 28–35, http://www.countercurrents.org/eco-sen041003.htm.
Sen, A. (2005) The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity. London: Allen Lane.
Tectonidis, M. (2006) Crisis in Niger – Outpatient Care for Severe Acute Malnutrition. Paris: MSF, http://fieldresearch.msf.org/msf/bitstream/10144/20833/2/243_Crisis_in_Niger_outpatient_care_NEJM_2006.pdf, accessed 19 January 2006.
Van de Walle, N. (2001) The impact of multi-party politics. Forum for Development Studies 1: 5–42.
Varshney, A. (2000) Why have poor democracies not eliminated poverty? Asian Survey 40 (5): 718–736.
Von Braun, J., Teklu, T. and Webb, P. (1998) Famine in Africa. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Wiseman, J.A. (1995) Democracy and Political Change in Sub-Saharan Africa. London: Routledge.
WHO. (2002a) Health assessment mission in Malawi (19 April–10 May 2002), http://www.who.int/disasters/repo/7958.doc.
WHO. (2002b) Report on Update of Health Assessment, UNFPA, UNICEF, Ministry of Health and WHO, Malwai September 2002, http://www.who/int/disasters/repo/8416.doc.
Acknowledgements
I wish to extend my gratitude to Erich Kofmel, Managing Director at the Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS), for convening the DSA 2008 Panel on Anti-Democratic Development. This article is highly inspired by his somewhat provocative idea of an anti-democratic bias in much of the Development Studies discipline.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rubin, O. The Merits of Democracy in Famine Protection – Fact or Fallacy?. Eur J Dev Res 21, 699–717 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/ejdr.2009.37
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/ejdr.2009.37