CSS Solved Essay | Development Is About Transforming Lives of People Rather Than the Economy of a State | Real Development Should Transform People’s Lives Not Just Economic Statics | CSS and PMS Solved Essays by Sir Syed Kazim Ali Students
Dr. Aimeen Mehmood, CSS Qualifier, has attempted the essay “Development Is About Transforming Lives of People Rather Than the Economy of a State” on the given pattern, which Sir Syed Kazim Ali teaches his students. Sir Syed Kazim Ali has been Pakistan’s top English writing and CSS, PMS essay and precis coach with the highest success rate of his students. The essay is uploaded to help other competitive aspirants learn and practice essay writing techniques and patterns.
Outline
1- Introduction
- ✓ Development encompasses economic, social, and environmental progress
- ✓ Economic growth in the absence of the upgradation of people’s lifestyle is a lopsided progress
- ✓ Economic indicators aren’t enough to show the holistic picture of the development of a state
- ✓ Nigeria and India are glaring examples of growth without development
2- Highlighting the difference between development and economic growth
3- How is development about transforming people’s lives rather than the economy of a state?
- ✓ Ensuring the rule of law
– Equal rights and opportunities for people irrespective of class differences
- ✓ Focusing on human resource development
– Singapore – a classic example of human resource development
- ✓ Empowering women
– Educated and independent women bring gender equality, decreasing the fertility rate sharply
- ✓ Sparking social mobility
– Improves the social sectors of society, allowing people to take benefits
- ✓ Strengthening accountability mechanism
– Development abstains the elite class from taking undue advantage of economic growth
- ✓ Confirming the presence of legitimate government
– It allows the consensus of all the stakeholders on the policies regarding national interest
- ✓ Assisting in the existence of the modern state
– It warranties the security of people’s life and property
4- How do MDGs and SDGs augment the concept that development entails social and economic aspects?
- ✓ All the eight development goals of MDGs regard the betterment of social indicators of society
- ✓ SDGs include social targets in addition to environmental targets
5- Case studies
- ✓ India and Nigeria: economic growth without development
- ✓ China – successful example in transforming the lives of its people, accompanied by economic growth
6- Critical analysis
7- Conclusion
Having an educated workforce, healthy citizens, stable and increasing productivity, and durable economic growth is a dream for which modern nation-states struggle. And this dream undoubtedly is the true translation of holistic development, which reflects in the transformation of people’s lifestyles. Therefore, it is a gospel truth that economic growth isn’t the sole indicator of the social betterment of the masses. To noble economists like Amrita Sen and Mahbub ul Haq, development is beyond the limited focus on economic growth. It has an impact in terms of its direct effects on human capabilities and indirect consequences on people’s lives through raising productivity and earning powers. This reveals that development encompasses a state’s social and economic progress, not solely economic. Owing to the above-discussed argument, the UN has included the targets of social betterment in Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and environmental protection. Moreover, the relationship between the upgradation of people’s living standards and development is evident in the glaring examples of India and Nigeria. With a 7 per cent annual economic growth since 2003, India has failed to provide millions of people with the basic facilities of life, like food, shelter, and basic health care and sanitation. On the other hand, South Asian economies have emerged by eradicating poverty, gender inequality, and social injustice, making development upgrade the people’s living standard. Therefore, economic indicators aren’t enough to gauge the development of people. Hence, development is about transforming people’s lives rather than the economy of a state.
Before proving that development is about the transformation of people’s lives, not merely economic growth, it impedes understanding the basic difference between development and economic growth. To many academicians, the development encompasses a state’s social, economic, and environmental progress. Economic growth is a part of holistic development, yet it alone doesn’t guarantee the development or the upgradation of people’s lifestyles. In fact, the increase in GDP and income per human capita are the reflections of economic growth, not the conformity of the upgradation of society socially.
As proven that development and economic growth aren’t the same, it is necessary to relate how development is linked with the transformation of people’s lifestyles. The following paragraphs prove how development, other than economic growth, highlighted by different noble economists, helps in the transformation of the people’s lives rather than the state’s economies.
To begin, the enforcement of the rule of law. The very characteristic of governance makes equal opportunities and rights available for every person in society, irrespective of class differences. A state that enjoys the rule of law reflects its commitment to the development of people of society. For instance, the UK, France, the US, and China – the countries ranking at the top of good governance worldwide–are great examples of developed nations. The uniformity of opportunities and rights for all the people of the society is a real development. People feel their identity and rights are safe and secure in such a polity.
Similarly, development ensures the transformation of people’s lifestyles by focusing on human resource development. Where human resource development is about long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living are the other crucial elements of it. For this reason, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) measures all three elements by measuring the life expectancy at birth, adult literacy rate, and GDP per capita to gauge human well-being in a country. Hence, a country with merely good GDP per capita would not rank high in the Human Development Index (HDI). On the other hand, a wholesome development in all the realms of human lifestyle would be graded as a true development, like in the case of Singapore and Scandinavian countries.
In addition, development also helps in uprooting gender inequality. It is because a state focusing on human development must also ensure women’s education. As a result, women become economically independent. Moreover, it also helps in reducing female fertility sharply. To Amrita Sen,” true development, which entails social and economic progress, has a great impact on the fertility behaviour of society. In the inter–country comparison, the districts with high literacy rates and healthcare systems possess low fertility rates because women being educated and having economic support for their families reduces the fertility rate. Thus, development brings gender equality along with economic growth.
Moreover, social mobility stands as the next important blessing of development. To achieve social mobility, the upgradation of literacy rate, health care system, and people’s lifestyle is a must. Without social betterment, society enters into a clash between haves and haves not, which ultimately drags a state into an abyss. Hence, the very discussed prerequisite of development again augments the fact that development involves the transformation of people’s lifestyles rather than the state’s economies.
Furthermore, accountability and development go hand in hand. The presence of an accountability mechanism protects the people’s rights from being engulfed by the elites of a state. The authoritarian class of a state cannot take undue dividends at the cost of losing other classes of society. This means thereby the presence of accountability also assures the development of people in society. The key decisions made by the authorities are in the interest of the state’s people. Thus, accountability preserves the progress of a nation in all realms, whether social or economic.
Additionally, the presence of a legitimate government has a vast impact on the development of a state. It is because a state that a legitimate government governs always finds its decisions supported by all the stakeholders. All the institutions work according to the constitution, ultimately giving development an outcome. Indeed, the economic growth of a state heavily depends on the presence of a legitimate government in a state. For example, the US could leap out from the Grand Recession (1937) because of the fact of the legitimate government – Franklin D. Roosevelt, the most popular president the US ever had. Therefore, a legitimate government’s presence is essential for a state’s development.
At last, the existence of the state – a political organization which has a monopoly over violence in a territory – is necessary for the development of society. Undoubtedly, development in the absence of a state is meaningless. A state ensures the people’s life is safe within the territory from the non–state actors. There must be no one to challenge the writ of a state. Hence, the very prerequisite of development also ensures the upgradation of people’s lifestyles by securing people’s life and property.
Because development encompasses social and economic progress, the UN has also included social indicators in MDGs and SDGs. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) include social targets like poverty and hunger alleviation, gender equality, universal primary education, and women empowerment. The very targets of the UN collectively promise the improvement of the people’s lifestyle in addition to economic growth. Similarly, the UN 2015 launched another set of targets, including environmental, economic, and social protection, called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to achieve sustainable development. Hence, MDGs and SDGs augment the statement that development is about transforming people’s lives, not merely economic growth.
To further concrete the statement that development is not just about economic growth, let’s consider the case study of Nigeria and India. To many political philosophers, India and Nigeria aren’t developed countries though of sparkling economic indicators. For instance, India’s economy has been growing at a rate of 7 per cent annually since 2003, but still, it has failed to provide the basic facilities of life to millions of its people. Similarly, Nigeria has been unable to wrench its millions of people above the poverty line. They can barely meet their necessities; they live on less than a dollar daily. Hence, both countries are the best manifestation of the fact that merely economic growth isn’t enough to gauge actual and sustainable development. The true development lies in the transformation in the people’s lifestyle.
On the other hand, the transformation of people’s lifestyles and the actual development is explicitly visible in the case of China. Since 2000, China has successfully transformed its people’s lives along with economic growth. According to the stats of the World Bank, China has been able to pull about 120 million people above the poverty line. However, the exact figure has been achievable only because it has successfully met all the development and economic growth prerequisites.
The above powerful diagnosis proves that real and sustainable development solely lies in transforming people’s lifestyles. Economic growth is one of the development indicators, not the only indicator of development. Therefore, the more economic growth there is, the more it must reflect in the upgradation of the people’s lifestyle, which ultimately leads to development. Economic growth without social development is nothing more than progress without development.
In a nutshell, the term development is multi-dynamic. It includes gender equality, universal primary education, modernized healthcare and education system. The very attributes of development are only achievable by states with the rule of law, accountability criteria, and legitimate government within their territory. And besides the mentioned prerequisites, economic growth stands out as one of them. In simple words, economic growth is a means where development is the end. Additionally, to political philosophers, only those countries that have advanced in the social front are considered developed. Thus, a country striving for real development has to fulfil the development in all realms of society, not just economic growth.
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