Ideas Related to Human Development

Aims of the chapter

To comprehend how the notion of freedom is understood in the human development and capability approach, on the one hand, and in market liberalism, on the other.

To situate the human development and capability approach in the context of related people-centred development ideas, such as basic needs, human security and human rights.

To highlight the distinctions and complementarities between the human development and capability approach and these related development ideas.

Key Points

Both human development and neoliberalism endorse the idea of freedom, but the former sees freedom as positive freedom, while the latter only sees it in negative terms.

There are key ingredients for spreading ideas: using moral narratives, conveying the narrative to a wide audience, achieving academic excellence, building an intellectual community and wider networks to support the idea, and engaging in politics.

The human development approach adds a greater emphasis on freedom and participation, as well as more robust intellectual foundations, to the basic needs approach.

The human rights approach shares a common vision with human development, but the latter places greater emphasis on the institutional requirements for promoting human rights.

Human security expands on the idea of human development to include the notion of risk.