Democracy and famine / Olivier Rubin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rubin, Olivier, author.

Series:

Routledge Research in Comparative Politics

Routledge research in comparative politics ; 37

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Food supply--Political aspects.

Food supply.

Famines--Prevention.

Famines.

Famines--Prevention--Case studies.

Democracy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (225 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2011.

Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Famine is the most extreme manifestation of the existence of poverty, inequality and political apathy. Whereas poverty, hunger and diseases are not easily eradicated in the world today, famines are often perceived to be relatively simple to avert. However, the political incentives to prevent famines are not always present. Inspired by the work of Amartya Sen, whose influential hypothesis that democratic institutions together with a free press provide effective protection from famine, Democracy and Famine is a study combining qualitative and quantitative evidence, analysing t

Contents:

Cover; Democracy and Famine; Copyright; Contents; Illustrations; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; 1 Introduction; Structure of book; 2 Presentation of Sen's theory of democracy and famine; Outlining Sen's theory of democracy and famine; Earlier critiques of Sen's democracy theory; The three different democracy propositions; 3 Conceptualization and operationalization of democracy; Conceptualizing democracy; The question of governance; Conclusion; Operationalization of democracy; Conclusion; 4 Discussion of Sen's understanding of democracy; Inferring from Sen's writings

Inferring from Sen's empirical example, IndiaConclusion; 5 Famines in Bangladesh, Sudan and India; The concept of famine and case-study design; The 1974 Bangladesh famine; The Sudanese famine of 1986-89; Indian famines since independence; Conclusion; 6 The Malawi famine of 2002; The Malawian democracy; The Malawian famine; Tracing system deficiencies; Conclusion; 7 The Niger famine of 2005; Democracy in Niger; The Niger famine; Tracing system deficiencies; Conclusion; 8 Democracy and famine: Quantitative evidence; Existing cross-country empirical evidence; Cross-country empirical evidence

Conclusion9 Multiple starvation deaths in India; Starvation deaths in West Bengal; The political triggers; Legal assembly dynamics; The politicized panchayats; Distrust and stigmatization; The village-specific factors; Conclusion; 10 Discussion of other macro-level causal approaches; De Waal's anti-famine contract; Dan Banik's freedom; Neumayer and Plümper's electorate size; 11 Counter-productive democratic mechanisms; The validity of the three propositions; The limitations of the focus on democracy and politicization; Conclusion; 12 Conclusion; The three propositions - results

Moving beyond the focus on democracyBibliography; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [182]-195) and index.

Description based on metadata supplied by the publisher and other sources.

ISBN:

1-283-58995-8

9786613902405

0-203-83671-5

1-136-86542-X

9780203836712

OCLC:

810077968