Inspired by the work of Amartya Sen, whose influential hypothesis that democratic institutions together with a free press provide effective protection from famine, Democracy and Famine is a study combining qualitative and quantitative evidence, analysing the effect of democracy on famine prevention.

Olivier Rubin is an assistant Professor at Global Studies, Roskilde University.

1. Introduction 2. Presentation of Sen's Theory of Democracy and Famine 3. Conceptualization and Operationalisation of Democracy 4. Discussion of Sen's Understanding of Democracy 5. Famines in Bangladesh, Sudan and India 6. The Malawi Famine of 2002 7. The Niger Famine of 2005 8. Democracy and Famine - Quantitative Evidence 9. Multiple Starvation Deaths in India 10. Discussion of Other Macro-Level Causal Approaches 11. Counterproductive Democratic Mechanisms 12. Conclusion