> I may be too ideolological but i have always ridiculed Sen's notion of democracy as some form of neo liberal hogwash.
Neoliberalism puts no particular value on democracy.
> democracy without working class rule appears in his writing as some abstarct freedom notion devoid of real substance.
Not at all. Liberal democracy is not yet working class rule, but even relatively imperfect liberal democracy creates more accountability than authoritarian or totalitarian government.
> in an interview about food secrurity a year ago, ramsey clark said that if the US embargos egypt, they will only have for 90 days. iraq was embargoed and that killed hundred of thousands.
Not a counterexample to Sen. Democracy in the western countries does not create accountability of Western governments to the Egyptian or Irqaui people. They don't vote for our leaders.
soula avramidis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> If sen's argument was formal then one oddity as it is, wouldinvalidate his argument.
But, as Ravi points out, it's not, and no scientific theory whatsoever is falsifiable that way, a point made by Pierre Duhem at the beginning of the last century. One of the fundamental results of modern philosophy of science, and one of the few points on which all modern philosophers of science (and scientists) will agree is that there is no such thing as a crucial experiment of this sort.
> if it was a general observation then that does not constitute theory since it does not explain moving from one state of things to another. it would be merely a descriptive of the general, and that is no theory.
As I understand Sen, the mechanism that underlies his generalization -- which I described as obvious but will now spell out -- is that democratic regimes are accountable to their constituencies. Famines, which harm those constituencies, do not happen in more democratic regimes because elected officials will be voted out of office if they allow famines to occur. Therefore such officials do not adopt policies like mass collectivization or the Great Leap Forward that cause famines.
jks
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