Wellbeing, Freedom and Social Justice The Capability Approach Re-Examined, 2017a

70 Wellbeing, Freedom and Social Justice
focussing on functionings or capabilities as the dimensions. What
lessons and insights can we learn from what has so far been argued in
this literature on the weighing of dimensions? (Alkire 2016; Alkire et al.
2015, chapter 6; Robeyns 2006b, 356–58)
First, the selection of weights for the capability approach is structurally
similar to other multidimensional metrics (in the case of evaluations)
or decision-making procedures (in case one needs to decide to which
capabilities to give priority in policies or collective decision making).
Hence one should consult existing discussions in other debates where
multidimensionality plays an important role. Let us first look at the
group of applications in which the capability approach is used to make
decisions about what we, collectively, ought to do. That may be in an
organisation; or at the level of a community that needs to decide whether
to spend tax revenues on investing more in public green spaces, or in
social services for particular groups, or in taking measures to prevent
crime, or in anything else that can likely be understood as leading to
positive effects on our capabilities. In those cases, we can learn from
social choice theory, and from theories of democratic decision making,
how we could proceed. 38 Decisions could be made by voting, or by
deliberation, or by deliberation and/or voting among those who are the
representatives of the relevant population.
Second, the applications of the capability approach that involve a
multidimensional metric of wellbeing or wellbeing freedom could
use (most of) the weighing methods that have been discussed for
multidimensional metrics in general. Koen Decancq and María Ana
Lugo (2013) have reviewed eight different approaches to set weights
for multidimensional metrics, which they categorize in three classes:
data-driven weights in which the weights are a function of the
distribution of the various dimensions in the population surveyed;
normative approaches in which either experts decide on the weights,
or the weights are equal or arbitrary; and hybrid weights that are in
38 In the case of democratic theory, the discussion is often about which laws to
implement, but the same insights apply to policy making. Both the literature on
democratic theory (e.g. Dryzek 2000; Gutmann and Thompson 2004) and social
choice theory (e.g. Arrow, Sen and Suzumura 2002, 2010; Sen 1999c, 2017; Gaertner
2009) are vast and will not be further discussed here.