characteristics of a certain person, as well as the environment surrounding them,
is crucial to the study of poverty as a capability deprivation. Social, physical, and
environmental characteristics deeply impact the possibility of converting
resources into functionings. This methodology suggests that having the freedom
and the opportunity to achieve one’s objectives is more relevant than whether
or not those are actually achieved. Sen differentiates the “opportunity aspect”
and the “process aspect” of freedom to explain why a comprehensive
understanding of social realizations is more inclusive (Sen, 2009: 10). But most
importantly, the capability approach is also consistent with the reliance on
partial rankings. Removing manifest injustice is not possible without
understanding the nature of capability deprivation and all it entails, which can
only be achieved through the comparison of various combinations of
functionings that public reasoning allows (Sen, 2009:11).
There is an inevitable connection between Sen’s theories of Social Choice
and Capability and the practice of democracy as a promoter of public discussion
and political deliberation. Sen draws attention to the traditions of deliberative
democracy beyond the current Western-centric understanding, which tends to
focus exclusively on election ballots (Sen, 2009:16). Broader conceptions of
democracy allow the recognition of the fundamental relationship between
democracy, public reasoning and the tolerance of different points of view. The
media plays a crucial role in the maintenance of democratic systems not only in
the spread of information but also as a driving force to public discussion.
Furthermore, Sen makes an important contribution to considerations about
famines, by noting that “no major famine has ever occurred in a functioning
democracy with regular elections, opposition parties, basic freedom of speech
and a relatively free media” (Sen, 2009:16). Since democracy makes
governments accountable to their citizens, democratic freedom enables social
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