A Study Of Amartya Sen's Poverty Theory From The Perspective Of Marxism

Amartya Sen won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998 and was hailed as “economist of the poor ”.Sen's research field mainly involves social choice theory,welfare economics,poverty and freedom,among which poverty is the focus of his constant attention.Sen's theory of poverty provides a new perspective for people to study the problem of poverty,enriches the meaning of poverty,and shows a new paradigm for studying the theory of poverty.This new paradigm consists mainly of the following two methods: First,the method of rights analysis.Sen believes that the study of poverty perspective can not only stay at the income level,should be the survival of the poor and their own rights are denied,as a foothold to study the problem of poverty;Attention should not be paid only to the income gap between the poor and others,but should be more focused on the benefits and rights that the poor can enjoy;Sen pointed out that only by giving people full rights and more choices and opportunities will it be possible to eradicate poverty fundamentally;Second,the feasible ability analysis method.Sen believes that the feasible ability refers to the freedom that a person can acquire in social life,that is,the substantive freedom that an individual can choose his or her ideal life in life.Sen pointed out that the existence of such freedom can be used as a criterion for judging whether a person is poor or not.The method of feasible capacity analysis,as a new criterion for the identification of poverty,should not be confined to low income when the causes of poverty are analyzed,and the lack of individual ability is the real cause of poverty.Sen believes that only by fully enhancing people's ability,so that people enjoy greater substantive freedom to choose their ideal life,can we achieve the goal of poverty eradication.Sen pointed out that this is a positive theory of poverty governance and a positive theory for a country,a region and individuals to achieve their respective value goals.Mori's interpretation of poverty extends from an economic point of view to political,legal,institutional and cultural aspects,thus extending the anti-poverty perspective from a mere focus on economic development to improving people's feasible ability and promoting the all-round development of human beings.Sen's theory of poverty and Marx's theory of poverty follow the same path,that is,realistic comparative doctrine.There are some similarities between the two people's theory of poverty.For example: Both start from the social reality,from the actual situation of people's lives,pay attention to the vulnerable groups,advocate the elimination of deprivation and poverty;At the same time,all put out of the foothold of poverty,put people can live a happy life,pay attention to the promotion of people's ability and the realization of all-round free development;Also,both believe that social production methods and economic grade structures are the root causes that affect people's living conditions and cause widespread poverty,frequent hunger and famine.From the perspective of Marxism,there are some limitations in looking at Sen's theory of poverty.First,it ignores the class nature of freedom.Freedom is the freedom that exists as class antagonism,and freedom can only be realized in class union and in collective.However,Sen believes that freedom refers to the freedom of the individual,ignoring the important role of the collective to the realization of individual freedom;Second,despise the institutional factors for the realization of freedom.Sen did not analyze the institutional causes of poverty,Sen's poverty theory was not based on historical materialism,he shunned the poor class attribute;Third,the interpretation of the concept of ambiguity.Although Sen's theory of poverty has a distinct view of inclusiveness and pluralism,he lacks a profound exposition of a certain concept and puts forward some quantitative standards and concrete feasible schemes,which have vague concepts of theory and difficult to operate in practice.For example: Sen's concept of viability,Sen did not give a clear explanation of what is feasible and what is feasible.He simply summed up the ability to be viable as a combination of functional activities and considered it an aspect of freedom.There are some logical fuzziness in Sen's feasible ability method both in theory and in practice.Although,Sen's thought has certain limitations,but from the perspective of China's reality,Sen's poverty theory has certain guiding significance to China's poverty management.At present,China is in a critical period of comprehensive construction of a well-off society,in order to achieve “two to ensure ”,that is: to ensure that the rural poor to achieve poverty eradication,to ensure that all poor counties out of poverty graduation,but also face a number of challenges.At the same time,the poor have higher expectations of poverty eradication and a happy and better life.Therefore,Sen's poverty theory is of great significance to solve the problem of poverty in our country,deepen our understanding of poverty,put forward a new idea of effective poverty management,and build a harmonious society.