The Dutch political party Groenlinks now refers to wellbeing in their election program, making 'Bruto National Happiness' one of the main indicators of a succesful policy. Groenlinks takes this leap following the publication of the 'Stiglitz report' earlier this year.
In january of his year the report by the Stiglitz Commission, commissioned by the French president Sarkozy, came out: This 'Report on the measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress' also advocates for the need for other measures of economic performance then the good old GDP.
From being an obscure idea, promoted only by a few, the idea of wellbeing and happyness indicators is now gaining popularity and seems to really start having influence on policy. The concept had been floating around in some parts of the European Commission for a while as well, but no clear push on it has come fom that side. Ofcourse, some would say, it has to come from national governments. Well, let's see how far the Netherlands takes this, provided Groenlinks takes part in the government.
Having other measures of performance then GDP seems like a really good idea, and giving happiness some more weight in policy making seems only logical. As long as we remember that wellbeing indicators and especially the subjective wellbeing indicators of happiness, are just a direction for policy. Happiness is nor a clear nor a fully attainable goal. It would be utopian to think it is.
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Wellbeing is far from being a new political concept. Eudaimonia was a key part of ancient Greek political thought, as was its derivative 'police' in early modern times. The pursuit of happiness is one of the chief tennets of the US constitution. 19th century hygienic and social reformism were both premised on this idea, as are more recent (post-WW2) statist health programmes. That it is now visible at a European level is noteworthy, but hardly surprising.
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