Amartya Sen Speaks About Globalization

Common discourse on globalization suffers from an impoverished understanding of the term by both proponents and critics of globalization, Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya K. Sen told a packed house at the Kennedy School of Government’s ARCO Forum last night.

Sen, who is Lamont University professor emeritus, said that a false general belief exists that democracy, freedom and human rights are “Western” values—a belief perpetuated by “the West’s chauvinism in adopting [these values] as its own.”

Sen, who hails from India, argued that the recognition that these supposedly Western values have flourished all over the world is crucial to an honest debate on the question posed by the title of his speech, “Globalizing What?”

To answer the question, Sen proposed that democracy, equity and efficiency are three things that are worthy of being globalized. He also noted several challenges that he said stand in the way of these positive types of globalization.

Sen said America’s current support of the global small-arms trade—and the support of other industrialized nations—harm the prospects for democracy in many developing countries.

“Most people in the world are killed by small arms,” Sen said. “Eighty percent of [small-arms] exporters are the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.”

Sen, who is also the honorary president of OXFAM, an international anti-poverty organization, said current levels of inequality may not be justifiable, even if the poor are getting richer along with the rich.

“Given manifest inequality, are the poor getting a fair deal?” he asked. “That is the question.”

Sen also criticized the current conception of intellectual property rights that he says has kept important drugs out of the hands of the world’s poor.

In questioning the questioning the notion that a person can “own an idea,” Sen joked that India should have patented the decimal system.

“I believe in incentives,” Sen said, “[but] the incentive structure isn’t working.”

During a question and answer session after his speech, Sen discussed a wide range of topics, including the prospects for African development, the anti-globalization movement and the question of whether economics has a normative ideology.

Sen has written books on a variety of subjects, including economic theory, moral philosophy, international development and feminism. He won the Nobel Prize for economics in 1998.

Yesterday, before Sen’s ARCO Forum speech, the University announced that former Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) will be the 2002 Commencement speaker—an honor bestowed upon Sen in 2000.