The Politics Of Basic Needs

Study, comparison of poverty in Africa, especially in urban areas, and development policy options - based on a description of income distribution and economic disparities, dependence with regard to industrialization and technological change, etc, argues for economic development based on basic needs; reviews obstacles to such development, and considers future political behaviour on the part of the working class likely to bring it about. References, statistical tables.

Human Needs and Politics is a collection of papers that examines the intercorrelation between political trends and the fulfillment of society’s human needs. The title discusses the concepts of human needs, wants, and politics. Next, the selection details some theories that will shed light into the mechanisms of human needs-politics interaction. The text also reviews Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, along with Marx’s opinion on human needs. The book will be of great interest to political scientists, sociologists, and behavioral scientists.

This volume reflects a new emphasis in development economics on conditions that promote the realization of human potential. Moon defines development goals as attainment of basic needs and the reduction of absolute poverty. He evaluates the effects of the state and political system, as well as the role of the military in relation to these goals, and makes a careful distinction between absolute poverty of basic-needs deprivation and the relative poverty associated with income inequality. Asserting that "the normative case for concern with the poor is unassailable, universal, and compelling," the author insists that "the provision of basic needs may be necessary for rapid growth." The volume includes a discussion of methodological premises in an appendix. ISBN 0-8014-2448-8: $45.00.

This book builds an essential bridge between climate change and social policy. Combining ethics and human need theory with political economy and climate science, it offers a long-term, interdisciplinary analysis of the prospects for sustainable development and social justice. Beyond ‘green growth’ (which assumes an unprecedented rise in the emissions efficiency of production) it envisages two further policy stages vital for rich countries: a progressive ‘recomposition’ of consumption, and a post-growth ceiling on demand. An essential resource for scholars and policymakers.

This study attempts to look at the basic needs condition in Indonesia from 1969 to 1984, using economics, politics and public policy approaches. It synthesizes the macro and micro orientations, the studies on the sectoral issues of basic needs, and the calculation of basic needs by single indicators. The politics of basic needs points to the importance of participation for future agenda, while the public policy approach stresses the importance of economic incentives for the future success of the basic needs programme.

Rejecting fashionable subjectivist and cultural relativist approaches, this important book argues that human beings have universal and objective needs for health and autonomy and a right to their optimal satisfaction. The authors develop a system of social indicators to show what such optimization would mean in practice and assess the records of a wide range of developed and underdeveloped economies in meeting their citizens' needs.

The paper raises some of the unsettled and controversial questions in the basic needs debate. Among them are: Who determines what needs are basic? What substance can be given to the slogan "participation" which, together with adequate income and well designed public services contains the essence of basic needs? What are the politics of basic needs? Is it a revolutionary or a conservative approach? What is the relation between meeting basic needs as an end in itself and as a means to raise labor productivity? Why are humanitarians and human capital school adherents at loggerheads? How should international support for a basic needs strategy be mobilized? And what is the empirical relation between poverty eradication and reducing income inequalities?