Violence and Human Development: A Perspective from Amartya Sen

Abstract

Political violence is a broad term that is often identified with acts of violence perpetuated by individuals or the state with the lone purpose of achieving political goals. Political violence may come in two modes, either as political terrorism or counter terrorism. The former is determined as the aggressive manipulation of an individual’s judgments by threats and intimidations to achieve political change. The latter presupposes the preventive measures the government is doing in fighting against all forms of terrorism, which inevitably lead to war. This paper is intended to examine how both of these forms of political violence affect the development of an individual, following Amartya Sen’s capability approach. This paper will argue, in the end, that the best way of solving arm conflicts is democratic dialogue. This paper, following Sen, adheres to the idea that any attempt of solving violence by resorting to war is futile. War in all its form is destructive to the claim of individual development. The government that readily engages into war without having to consider first any democratic dialogues in solving arm conflicts is not fulfilling its task of protecting and prioritizing the development of the people. In war there is no individual development. 

Keywords

• Capability Approach
• Counter Terrorism
• Human Development
• Political violence
• Sen
• Terrorism
• War

Şiddet ve İnsani Kalkınma: Amartya Sen’in Fikirleri Üzerinden Bir Bakış

Abstract

Siyasi şiddet, siyasi amaçlara ulaşmak amacıyla bireyler veya devlet tarafından uygulanan şiddet olarak tanımlanan geniş bir kavramdır. Siyasi şiddet, siyasi terörizm veya terörle mücadele olarak iki şekilde ortaya çıkabilir. İlki, bireylerin siyasi kararlarının değişime uğraması için tehdit ve göz korkutma ile agresif manipülasyonu anlamına gelir. İkincisi ise, hükümetin terörün her çeşidiyle mücadele etmek için başvurduğu ve/fakat kaçınılmaz biçimde savaşa yol açan önleyici tedbirleri içeriyor. Bu makale, tanımlanan siyasi şiddet biçimlerinin her ikisini de Amartya Sen’in “Yetenek yaklaşımnı” (Capability approac) kullanarak incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Araştırmanın sonucunda silahlı çatışmaları çözmenin en iyi yolunun demokratik dialog olduğu ileri sürülmektedir. Bu makale, şiddeti çözmek için nihayetinde savaşa başvurmasnın faydasız olduğu görüşünü savunuyor. Savaşın her biçimi bireysel kalkınma çabaları üzerinde tahripkâr bir etki yaratır. Bu nedenle demokratik diyaloğu ilk çözüm olarak dikkate almayıp silahlı bir çatışmaya giren hükumetler, halkın korunması ve kalkındırılması hakkındaki öncelikli görevlerini yerine getirmiyorlar demektir. Savaşta bireysel gelişimden söz edilemez. 

Keywords

• Amartya Sen
• Anti terör
• İnsani Kalkınma
• Sava
• Siyasal Şiddet
• Yetenek Yaklaşımı

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