I think in those countries, including my own in India, where I think primary education has been badly neglected by successive governments, I blame the opposition as much. Why have they allowed the government to get away with it?
Amartya SenSouth Korea at the end of the Second World War had a very low level of literacy. But suddenly, like in Japan, they determined they were going in that direction. In 20 years' time, they had transformed themselves. So when people go on saying that it's all because of perennial culture, which you cannot change, that's not the way the South Korean economy was viewed before the war ended. But again within 30 years, people went on saying there's an ancient culture in Korea that has been pro-education, which is true.
Amartya SenI left Delhi, in 1971, shortly after Collective Choice and Social Welfare was published in 1970.
Amartya Senthe identity of an individual is essentially a function of her choices, rather than the discovery of an immutable attribute
Amartya Sen