[Mayworks-org] Human Development and Practice

Thu Jun 14 05:16:47 PDT 2007

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 51... June 13, 2007
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   Human Development and Practice
	Michael A. Lebowitz

The Bolivarian Constitution, in my view, is unique in its explicit
recognition (in Article 299) that the goal of a human society must be that
of 'ensuring overall human development'. In the declaration of Article 20
that 'everyone has the right to the free development of his or her own
personality' and the focus of Article 102 upon 'developing the creative
potential of every human being and the full exercise of his or her
personality in a democratic society' -- this theme of human development
pervades the Constitution.

Underlying this focus is a theory. It is a theory which stresses the gap
between what is and what ought to be. Implicit is the recognition that the
full development of our creative potential is not occurring but that it is
possible. In other words, what we observe now in the capacities of human
beings is not all that is possible, what we observe now is a fraction of 
what we can be. It is a clear recognition that human development is not
fixed and that we do not know its boundaries. It is a political statement
-- because it implies that there is an alternative.

There is another very important characteristic of the Bolivarian 
Constitution; and, that is its focus upon precisely how people develop
their capacities and capabilities -- i.e., how overall human development
occurs. Article 62 of the Constitution declares that participation by
people in 'forming, carrying out and controlling the management of public
affairs is the necessary way of achieving the involvement to ensure their
complete development, both individual and collective.' And, the same focus
upon a democratic, participatory and protagonistic society is present in
the economic sphere, which is why Article 70 stresses 'self-management,
co-management, cooperatives in all forms' and why Article 102's goal of
'developing the creative potential of every human being' emphasizes
'active, conscious and joint participation.'

Here, again, the Constitution embodies a theory. It is a theory that I
immediately recognized when I read the Constitution--- whether it was
conscious or not on the part of the drafters of the Constitution; that
theory is Karl Marx's concept of 'revolutionary practice'. Revolutionary
practice, he stressed, is 'the coincidence of the changing of circumstances
and of human activity or self-change.' Marx developed this idea that we
develop our capacities and capabilities through our activity in one of his
earliest writings. But, it is a theme which runs throughout his work. He
talked, for example, of how people develop through their struggles -- how
this is the only way the working class can 'succeed in ridding itself of
the muck of ages and become fitted to found society anew.' And he told
workers that they would have to go through as much as 50 years of struggles
'not only to bring about a change in society but also to change yourselves,
and prepare yourselves for the exercise of political power.' And, again,
after the Paris Commune in 1871, over a quarter of a century after he first
began to explore this theme, he commented that workers know that 'they will
have to pass through long struggles, through a series of historical
processes, transforming circumstances and men.'

Always the same point -- we change ourselves through our activity. This
idea of the simultaneous change in circumstances and self-change, however,
was not limited to class struggle itself. It was present in all activities
of people. Marx talked quite a bit about the process of production. Not
everyone recognizes, though, that he stressed that people transform
themselves in the process of production. The worker, Marx noted, 'acts upon
external nature and changes it, and in this way, he simultaneously changes
his own nature'. Similarly, he talked about how in production 'the
producers change, too, in that they bring out new qualities in themselves, 
develop themselves in production, transform themselves, develop new powers
and ideas, ... new needs and new language.' In all this, there is the clear
conception of the self-development of people through their activity --
e.g., Marx commented that 'when the worker cooperates in a planned way with
others, he strips off the fetters of his individuality, and develops the
capabilities of his species.' This idea about developing the capabilities
of human beings, too, was central for Marx.

What was his vision? It was the development of what he called 'the rich
human being' -- the person for whom her own development is an inner
necessity, the person who is rich in both abilities and needs. This, for
Marx, was real wealth -- human wealth, 'the developed productive power of
all individuals'. He asked, 'what is wealth other than the universality of
individual needs, capacities, pleasures, productive forces'..? The goal,
Marx insisted, is the 'totally developed individual', the 'development of
the rich individuality which is as all-sided in its production as in its
consumption', the 'absolute working- out of his creative potentialities,'
the 'complete working out of the human content,' the 'development of all
human powers as such the end in itself'. Here was Marx's goal -- the
creation of a society which would permit this, a society which encourages
'the all-round development of the individual.'

Of course, Marx was not alone in stressing the importance of human
development. This was the theme of most 19th Century socialists-the idea
that people should have the opportunity to develop and use their faculties.
And, this goal was described by Marx's partner Frederick Engels as the
organisation of a 'society in such a way that every member of it can
develop and use all his capabilities and powers in complete freedom.' But,
human development has become also a focus of many writers in the late 20th
Century and at the present time. Why? Because it has become so obvious that
the development of human beings and human capacities is not at all the same
as rising national income. So, in recent years, literature on social and
economic development has emphasized increasingly the process of human
development. Moving away from the crude identification of development with
statistics on economic growth, this focus (most obvious in the Human
Development Reports published by the UN Development Program) stresses the
necessity to place human beings at the centre of the meaning of
development.

The UN Human Development Reports draw in particular upon the theoretical
work of the economist Amartya Sen. In this work, the central focus is upon
the development of human capabilities, and this is sometimes described as
the 'capabilities approach.' The development of human capabilities is seen
as at the core of human development and as the condition for people to be 
able to live lives of respect and value.

But, what exactly do people like Amartya Sen and others in this school
(such as Marsha Nussbaum, a feminist philosopher) mean by capabilities?
What they emphasize is the removal of barriers. Having capabilities for
them is having opportunities. So, this approach stresses the broadening of
opportunities -- e.g, removing racism, removing sexism, removing inadequate
education, removing conditions which generate poor health, removing
restrictions on the opportunities that people have for a life of dignity.

... Complete article:
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/bullet051.html

Michael Lebowitz is the author of Build it Now: Socialism for the 21st
Century(2006) and Professor of Economics at Simon Fraser University. He now
lives in Caracas.

****************************************************************
****************************************************************
Building it Now in Venezuela:
Socialism for the 21st Century

Michael Lebowitz

SUNDAY, JUNE 17, 2:30 P.M.
OISE, Room 2-212
252 Bloor W., Toronto (St. George Subway)

Venezuela under President Hugo Chavez has re-opened the discussion of
political alternatives, in Latin America and beyond, in spectacular
fashion. Based in Caracas, Michael Lebowitz has been intensively involved
in discussion of the government's political direction. His reflections from
inside the Venezuelan revolution have been widely praised inside Venezuela
-- including by President Chavez -- and across the spectrum of the Left.

Michael is the author of Build it Now: Socialism for the 21st Century
(2006), and the Deutscher Prize-winning Beyond Capital (2003).

Sponsors: Socialist Project, Venezuela We Are With You Coalition (CVEC),
OISE Transformative learning Centre.

Endorsers: Hands Off Venezuela, Latin American Solidarity Committee, Louis
Riel Bolivarian Circle, Manuelita Saenz Bolivarian Circle.

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