Public Happiness (Community Quality-of-Life and Well-Being)

We all strive for personal happiness in one way or another, but what about public happiness? What does public happiness mean and what role can governments and public policies play? The current COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the inadequacies of old governance paradigms and even before this pandemic, increasing inequalities and frustration with the old GDP-centric growth paradigm have fueled dissatisfaction with and distrust of governments. This book suggests a new path towards public happiness as a potential solution. The book builds a theory of public happiness as a distinct concept from individual happiness, borrowing especially from Eastern philosophy. It provides an overview of the efforts so far to go “beyond GDP” – including measurement and exploration of the determinants of happiness – and how these efforts have fallen short of expectation. Lastly, the book sketches out what a public happiness policy might look like and identifies the factors of a successful happiness policy. Preface Contents 1 Introduction References 2 Theoretical Backgrounds of Public Happiness 1 Conceptualization of Happiness 2 Perspectives of Happiness 2.1 Hedonistic View 2.2 Eudaimonism 3 Components of Happiness 3.1 Hedonic Perspective 3.2 Eudaimonic Perspective 3.3 Summary 4 Related Concepts 4.1 Wellbeing 4.2 Community Wellbeing (CWB) 4.3 Objective Happiness 4.4 Quality of Life 5 Conditions of Happiness 6 Effects of Happiness References 3 A Theory of Public Happiness 1 Current Trends 1.1 Practice 1.2 Research 2 Public Happiness: The Publicness of Happiness 2.1 The Concept of Public Happiness 2.2 Why Public Happiness: The Public Responsibility for Happiness 2.3 The Scope of Public Happiness 3 Essential Principles of Public Happiness 3.1 Public Responsibility for the Happiness of Constituents 3.2 Balanced Consideration of the Level and Distribution of Happiness 3.3 Constructing Appropriate Social Conditions (Living Conditions) 3.4 Social Admissibility of Individual Happiness Values 4 Research Toward Public Happiness 4.1 Reflections on Current Research 4.2 Directions for Public Happiness Research References 4 Measurement of Public Happiness 1 Significance of Measurement 2 Happiness Research 2.1 Major Surveys 2.2 Evaluation of Current Measures 3 Measurement Strategies 3.1 Establishing the Direction of Happiness Measurement 3.2 Measurement Models of Happiness 3.3 Conciseness of Indicators 3.4 Employing Intersubjective Measures 3.5 Presentation of Measurement Results 4 Measuring Happiness 4.1 The Components of Happiness 4.2 Level and Distribution of Happiness References 5 Determinants of Happiness 1 Explanatory Models of Happiness 1.1 Adaptation Theory 1.2 Reactivity Theory 1.3 Integration Theory 2 Factors Influencing Happiness 2.1 Influencing Factors at the Individual Level 2.2 Influencing Factors at the Collective (National) Level 2.3 Summing up 3 Analysis of Factors Influencing Public Happiness References 6 Public Happiness Policy 1 The Need for a Happiness Policy 1.1 Desirability of Happiness Policies 1.2 Happiness Promotion Effect (Direct Effect) 1.3 Policy Development Effect (Indirect Effect) 1.4 Positive Social Function (Inductive Effect) 2 Purpose of the Happiness Policy References 7 The Factors of a Successful Happiness Policy 1 Demands of the Happiness Policy 2 Directions of Happiness Policy 2.1 The Basic Directions of Happiness Policy 2.2 Contents of the Happiness Policy 2.3 Caveats to the Happiness Policy 3 Realizing Good Governance 3.1 Governance and Good Governance 3.2 Conditions for Good Governance 3.3 Flexibility of Governance Method 3.4 Micronization of the Governance Unit 3.5 Summing up References 8 Epilogue References Correction to: Public Happiness Correction to: S. J. Lee, Public Happiness, Community Quality-of-Life and Well-Being, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89643-0 Index