A Re-assessment of Entitlement Theory in the Light of the Recent Famines in Africa

This paper is an attempt to re-assess the nature of famines, as conceptualized in Professor Sen's entitlement theory, in the light of empirical evidence concerning the recent African famines. The paper identifies two critical phenomena that entitlement theory fails to explain. First, during famines, many people choose not to consume food rather than sell vital assets. Secondly, most famine mortality is not directly related to undernutrition, but is caused by outbreaks of disease. Sen's more recent work on poverty provides a framework for understanding these phenomena. The price of this is that entitlements themselves form only part of a larger account of famine. Some aspects of a revised account include coping strategies of famine-affected people, social disruption, and violence. In this account, less severe famine is not theoretically distinct from acute poverty, and severe famine is distinct largely because of the severity of social collapse, which in Africa usually follows violence.     

试论拉丁美洲现代化步履维艰的文化根源

天主教伦理是拉丁美洲文化体系的主要基础 ,这是西班牙和葡萄牙对美洲征服和殖民化过程中所留下的遗产。这套伦理观对拉美人的思想意识和行为方式产生了非常重要的影响 ,成为具有伊比利亚传统的拉丁美洲经济长期难以走出不发达的主要根源之一。拉美地区走出不发达的状态首先在于走出文化精神上的“不发达”。