ПОНЯТИЕТО ДЕМОКРАЦИЯ КАТО ЦЕНТЪР В КОНЦЕПЦИЯТА НА ВЪЗМОЖНОСТИТЕ НА АМАРТИЯ СЕН
THE CENTRALITY OF DEMOCRACY IN AMARTYA SEN’S CAPABILITY APPROACH

Summary/Abstract: The capability approach developed by Amartya Sen is characterized by the distinction between resources, capabilities, and functionings. The term „resources“ designates all the goods and services, being at one’s disposal, irrespective whether these are goods available at the market place or outside it. The "capabilities“ coincide with the real freedom to choose one’s own life style, or, to use Sen’s language, to lead the life people have reason to value. Among the most important contributions of Sen’s approach is that it shows that owing the resources isn’t enough to guarantee an individual’s real freedom: in line with this it is necessary that he/she has the capacity to use them, as well as that his/her social background let them do this. The term „functionings“ which designates the ways in which individuals de facto act allows capturing another extremely important distinction made in Sen’s perspective. Therefore, Sen’s approach is based on the distinction between formal rights (resources), de facto rights (capabilities), and real behaviors (functionings). At the core of this scheme lies the extremely rigid concept of democracy, which highly contrasts to the neo-classical theory, dominating in economics.

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