Thomas Jefferson Was Right: Happiness Comes First

Source: Debbie Peterson/@heyjasperai

From Aristotle to Thomas Jefferson, the most revered writers of governing documents worldwide maintain that government shall uphold the quality of life of those governed. The American Declaration of Independence summed it up thus, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Jefferson, one of its authors, said, “The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.”

Yet, until recently, most studies measuring what most affects citizens’ voting decisions have focused on economic conditions rather than quality of life, according to a 2020 National Bureau Of Economic Research Working Paper Series, “Happiness And The Quality Of Government” by Helliwell, Huang, and Wang.

Until the inception of the UN World Happiness Report in 2006, empirical evidence linking happiness and government quality covered small populations over short time spans. The performance of political institutions was difficult to measure because they are slow to change.

Now more data is available and it replicates frequent earlier findings that the honesty and quality of delivery of government institutions have significant linkages to citizens’ sense of well-being. ‘Quality of delivery’ is defined as the average of four factors in governance: effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and absence of corruption.

Helliwell, Huang, and Wang confirm that changes in government delivery quality, whether year to year or over a decade, improve how citizens feel about themselves and their communities.

Trust and inequality

In 2014 and 2018, the Happiness & Quality of Government authors considered the effect of inequalities in financial status versus inequalities of well-being on citizens’ trust in one another and their government institutions. They found “substantial evidence that high trust societies are more resilient in the face of external shocks including earthquakes, floods, and economic crises. Individuals who feel that others can be trusted, and have a sense of belonging to their communities, are more resilient in the face of hardships ranging from unemployment and ill health to discrimination. Although any of those adverse situations significantly reduces an individual’s well-being, the loss is less for those who live in a high-trust environment."

Trust and belonging not only raise subjective well-being for all, but they also reduce inequality of well-being. Trust in one another and their government institutions upholds people who are subject to conditions that would otherwise be likely to place them at the bottom of the happiness scale.

A 2018 psychology study by Daley, Phipps, and Branscombe supports the positive impact of social and institutional trust, finding that the loss of a sense of well-being of children facing discrimination because of their disabilities is much less for those children who feel a sense of belonging in their local communities.

Also, in 2018 Helliwell, Huang, Wang, Goff, and behavioral economist Mayraz evaluated the sharply growing inequality of income and wealth worldwide over the last four decades. These inequalities have been linked to changes in several measures of well-being.

Considering the inequalities that cause happiness declines, these authors reviewed three large international surveys. They find that the gaps between a sense of well-being more negatively impact overall national well-being averages than widening income gaps.

They also find empirical support that those who favor equality are far more troubled by the widespread occurrence of well-being inequality than the widespread occurrence of economic inequality.

Participating in local government can make you and everyone else happier

There is good news from a 2019 study by Canadian psychologists, “Happiness and Prosocial Behavior: An Evaluation of the Evidence.” These authors find that prosocial actions improve the subjective well-being of both the givers and receivers of kindness, especially of kindness independently generated.

Helliwell, Huang, and Wang suggest, “Changes in the structure of government to increase the options for individuals and communities to share in the design and implementation of their own institutions is likely to improve [well-being] outcomes in several ways because such collaborations encourage engagement, increase the scope for innovation, and build social connections that raise subjective well-being above and beyond what they contribute to solving the specific problems at hand. This may be part of the reason why studies find that people are happier in more decentralized systems. Large negative effects of corruption on happiness may reflect in part that corruption lessens the extent to which citizens see themselves as parts of trustworthy collaborations to improve lives.”

The UN World Happiness Report and the studies that it generates resurrect the vision of the founders of participative democracies: governments of the people, by the people, and for the people can be a path to happiness.