The Capability Approach

by Shriddha Shah 

One of the objectives of the capabilities approach is to maintain a pluralistic liberal society. In this context, Nussbaum has given a list of 10 capabilities, which in her view are basic to understanding a life led with human dignity. She also maintains that despite having given this list the capability approach allows for the maintenance of pluralistic values in society and she gives some six points in defense of this.

In my view the problem that arises here is that she grounds this list in an intuitive idea of what a human life should be like. Now although she is open to revisions of the list and points out that there are no metaphysical underpinnings to her approach so that people who hold different metaphysical beliefs can appropriate it, there is still a problem here; as there is another significant aspect of the capabilities approach, which suggests that the capabilities offered are not only about what people feel in respect to them but it is what they can actually be or do, and therefore there ought to be a threshold level of each capability.

In my view the above two aspects can’t go together. For instance in a pluralistic society like India there are very many different world-views, so by the first aspect of the capabilities approach they should be allowed to thrive as per their interpretations of the various points on the list. But the second aspect suggests that they should have some minimum level of the items on that list. Now the points are who decides and how is that minimum level decided? And does that still allow for plurality? In my view these two aspects are not satisfactorily dealt with in the capabilities approach as it stands now.

Also the point about the difference in capability and functioning for each individual is ambiguous. Primarily what it means is that you may be capable of something but not do it. But if you don’t really do it how is one to judge whether you are capable of it. I make this point especially because it is a theory for social and political justice and therefore requires some external mechanism to allow for assessment.