On democracy and happiness via CIPE Development Blog
The recent edition of the Foreign Policy magazine (subscription required) delves into the issue of democracy and happiness. Namely, it explores why the common wisdom that democratic nations are happy nations may not always be true. The article gives an example of the former Soviet bloc countries where according to sociological research national happiness has not increased – or even in some cases decreased – despite the advent of elections.
The World Values Survey, for instance, for years now has been asking the question “Overall, how happy are you with your life these days?” to people around the world. One clear trend that emerged from this research is that happy countries tend to be wealthy and stable democracies. But it’s not enough for a country to be a democracy in order...