Philosophy
The Capabilities Approach in Political Theory and Social Justice
Quick fact
The capabilities approach, pioneered by economist Amartya Sen and philosopher Martha Nussbaum, argues that justice should be measured by the real freedoms people have to achieve valuable 'beings and doings'—like being healthy, educated, or participating in community life—rather than by income, resources, or happiness.
Why this is interesting
Why does a wealthy person with no access to education or healthcare still experience injustice, even if they have money? The answer lies not in what they have, but in what they can actually do with it.
Read the full explanation
Understanding The Capabilities Approach in Political Theory and Social Justice
Think of the capabilities approach as shifting the question from 'How much do you have?' to 'What can you actually do?' It starts with the observation that people are different: a disabled person and a healthy person may have the same income, but the disabled person may need more resources to achieve the same level of functioning, like moving or participating. The approach identifies a set of central human functionings—states of being and doing that people have reason to value, such as being adequately nourished, being in good health, having self-respect, and taking part in the life of the community. A capability is the real freedom to achieve these functionings. For example, having the capability to be educated means not just having a school nearby, but also having the resources, social conditions, and personal abilities to attend and learn. The approach evaluates social arrangements by the distribution of these capabilities.
A deeper explanation
The mechanism of the capabilities approach rests on a crucial distinction between means and ends. Means—like income, wealth, and primary goods—are only instrumental to the real purpose of development: expanding human freedoms. The approach examines the 'conversion' of means into capabilities, which is affected by personal, social, and environmental factors. For instance, a bicycle is a resource, but whether it becomes a capability of mobility depends on your physical ability, the roads, and the weather. Sen famously used this to critique Rawlsian justice, which focuses on primary goods: two people with identical baskets of primary goods can have very different freedoms because of their differing needs and abilities. The approach also rejects utilitarianism, which focuses on pleasure or desire satisfaction, because preferences can adapt to deprivation—a person in a harsh condition may learn to be satisfied with very little. Instead, the approach demands that society ensure each person has the capability to achieve a threshold level of functioning, as Nussbaum argues in her capability list. This has profound implications for policy: it redirects attention from expanding GDP to expanding people's real choices, leading to approaches like the Human Development Index (HDI).