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Democracy and famine
What is the cause of famine? The obvious answer is shortage of food. But, says the Nobel-prize winning economist Amartya Sen, it鈥檚 not that simple鈥�
What is the cause of famine? The obvious answer is shortage of food. But, says the Nobel-prize winning economist Amartya Sen that misses a vital point. In his research on famines, he showed that there鈥檚 usually enough food to go around 鈥� it just doesn鈥檛 reach the people who need it. Often that鈥檚 because news of food scarcity hasn鈥檛 been widely publicised. In democracies people don鈥檛 starve to death, he says, because there鈥檚 always pressure on the politicians to alleviate suffering.
Presenter David Edmonds
Producer Ben Cooper
(Image: Bengal Famine, Credit: Getty Images)
Last on
Sun 12 Jul 2020
21:50GMT
91福利社 World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
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