If the government is vulnerable to public opinion, then famines are a dreadfully bad thing to have. You cant win many elections after a famine, and you dont like being criticized by newspapers, opposition parties in parliament, and so on. Democracy gives the government an immediate political incentive to act.
Amartya Senthe identity of an individual is essentially a function of her choices, rather than the discovery of an immutable attribute
Amartya SenI think education has a bigger impact on the lives of people than absolutely anything else.
Amartya Sen