During the past forty years, thousands of studies have been carried out on the subject of happiness. Some have explored the levels of happiness or dissatisfaction associated with typical daily activities, such as working, seeing friends, or doing household chores. Others have tried to determine the extent to which income, family, religion, and other factors are associated with the satisfaction people feel about their lives. The Gallup organization has begun conducting global surveys of happiness, and several countries are considering publishing periodic reports on the growth or decline of happiness among their people. One nation, tiny Bhutan, has actually made "Gross National Happiness" the central aim of its domestic policy. How might happiness research affect government policy in the United States--and beyond? In The Politics of Happiness, former Harvard president Derek Bok examines how governments could use the rapidly growing research data on what makes people happy--in a variety of policy areas to increase well-being and improve the quality of life for all their citizens. Bok first describes the principal findings of happiness researchers. He considers how reliable the results appear to be and whether they deserve to be taken into account in devising government policies. Recognizing both the strengths and weaknesses of happiness research, Bok looks at the policy implications for economic growth, equality, retirement, unemployment, health care, mental health, family programs, education, and government quality, among other subjects. Timely and incisive, The Politics of Happiness sheds new light on what makes people happy and how government policy could foster greater satisfaction for all.

The Politics of Happiness: What Government Can Learn from the New Research on Well-Being

The crypto-trade volume, GDP, energy use, and environmental degradation sustainability: An analysis of the top 20 crypto-trader countries

Coupling coordination degree for urban green growth between public demand and government supply in urban agglomeration: A case study from China

Trust is a fundamental ingredient of prosperous democracies. In Europe, trust in existing elected democratic institutions is fading while authoritarian nationalist movements grow. Experiences of neglect, ignorance, and inferiority are one explanation for this. This paper explores the link between the experiences of households in a state of energy poverty and their trust in institutions and social networks. Using qualitative data from ten different European countries, we show that a lack of trust in both public and private institutions is widespread among energy-poor households. Our interviewees show distrust in various dimensions. In their contacts with institutions, they report experiences of powerlessness, bad and unfair treatment, and feelings of inferiority. While some interviewees do trust single individuals within institutions, others trust only their own social networks and some have no trust in anyone. We further show how trust in networks or (people in) institutions can strengthen the coping capacities of energy-poor households while a lack of trust even cuts people off from the support they could attain and thus deepens their state of energy poverty.

The critical role of trust in experiencing and coping with energy poverty: Evidence from across Europe

In the current study, we examined the relationship between perceived person happiness and factors that influence this perception, also, is inferred that life satisfaction is influence by happiness. Among 2494 Spaniards individuals of both sexes, we found that these individuals valued political situation, economic situation and socio-demographic characteristics to have a strong association in that order, with happiness and that this last construct is a fundamental factor to life satisfaction. The importance of perception is validated using a structural equation model that evaluates relationships and validity on the constructs in question. Collinearity statistics, average variance extracted, and an estimated partial least square regression model are evaluated to confirm independent meaning, correct construct measure and endogenous variable explanation by the predictive constructs. Results indicate that the level of happiness in Spaniards is most influenced by political perception. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed, and it is proposed to continue this study in a non-developed country.

Happiness perception in Spain, a SEM approach to evidence from the sociological research center

How quality of government affects residents’ life satisfaction is a seldom discussed subject, especially in a non-democratic context. This research aims to address that gap by focusing on the case of China. It investigates the relation between different aspects of quality of government and Chinese residents’ happiness. Our data was provided by telephone interviews of 5015 residents in Shandong Province. The findings indicate that the majority of China’s citizens consider their lives offer them a high level of satisfaction. Positively and significantly contributing to their life satisfaction are the government’s trustworthiness and responsiveness, and its performance in public service delivery. This result implies that the quality of government has a positive and important impact on Chinese citizens’ happiness, both technically in terms of its ability to deliver public services efficiently, and politically in terms of the extent of democracy involved. But of these, it seems that the
former is the more significant. The reasons for this lie in the country’s level of economic development, in China’s political culture, and in the policing mechanisms of the regime.

Hong Gao

Papers

Better Government, Happier Residents? Quality of Government and Life Satisfaction in China