Amartya Sen Famine Quotes & Sayings

[N]o democracy with a free press has ever experienced a major famine. — Amartya Sen

No famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy. — Amartya Sen

No substantial famine has ever occurred in any independent and democratic country with a relatively free press. — Amartya Sen

Hardly any famine affects more than 5 percent, almost never more than 10 percent, of the population. The largest proportion of a population affected was the Irish famine of the 1840s, which came close to 10 percent over a number of years. — Amartya Sen

If the government is vulnerable to public opinion, then famines are a dreadfully bad thing to have. You can't win many elections after a famine, and you don't like being criticized by newspapers, opposition parties in parliament, and so on. Democracy gives the government an immediate political incentive to act. — Amartya Sen