Public discussion
Public discussion plays an important role in shaping the values and behaviour norms. This requires freedom of speech and standard quality of education and free flow of information . This helps in formulating meaningful public policy.
11. ""The crucial function of public discussions is sometimes only partially
recognized. In China, despite the control over the press in other respects,
issues of family size have been widely discussed, and the emergence of a
different set of norms regarding family size has been actively sought by
public leaders. But similar considerations apply to many other areas of
economic and social change, in which, too, open public discussion can
greatly help. The lines of permissibility (and of encouragement) in China
reflect the priorities of state policy. There is, in fact, something of a
conflict here, which remains unresolved. It is reflected in the oddities of
partial success in the chosen areas. For example, a reduction of fertility
rates in China has been accompanied by an accentuation of gender bias
in infant mortality and a sharp increase in sex-selective abortions. A
fertility-rate reduction that is achieved not through coercion but through
a greater acceptance of gender justice (including, inter alia, the freedom
of women not to be overwhelmed by overfrequent childbearing and -
rearing) would suffer from less internal tension.
Public policy has a role not only in attempting to implement the
priorities that emerge from social values and affirmations, but also in
facilitating and guaranteeing fuller public discussion. The reach and
quality of open discussions can be helped by a variety of public policies,
such as press freedom and media independence (including the absence of
censorship), expansion of basic education and schooling (including
female education), enhancement of economic independence (especially
through employment, including female employment), and other social
and economic changes that help individuals to be participating citizens.
Central to this approach is the idea of the public as an active participant
in change, rather than as a passive and docile recipient of instructions or
of dispensed assistance.""
Page no 301 of DEVELOPMENT AS FREEDOM by Prof Amartya Sen
