The Correlation Between Democracy and Happiness

Over the past twenty years, a new trend in political science has emerged. More and more researchers are looking to find correlations between economic, political, or social institutions, and the emotional well being of the citizens living within them. One of the most investigated correlations is that of democracy and happiness. While not every study on this matter comes to the same conclusion, the majority of findings indicate a strong, positive correlation between democratic policy and a population’s level of happiness.

So what is it about democracy that makes it so happiness inducing? Because if we know what it is, we might be able to recreate the phenomenon and expand it so that even more people can be happy. This is the question I’m aiming to answer through a semester-long research project for my political quantifications course this fall. But as any good scientist knows, you have to be familiar with the work of your predecessors before you can begin your own research. So, here’s what those predecessors can tell us so far:

We’ll start with the work of Bruno S. Frey. Frey is one of the most published scientists in this field of study, and one of the first to examine the impact of direct democracy and federalism on happiness. Although Frey’s work is mainly centered around economics, he provides a detailed account of the positive correlation between direct democracy and federalism in an article he wrote with Alois Stutzer (Frey, Stutzer 2000), and later in a passage of his book, Happiness, A Revolution in Economics (2008). Frey and Stutzer examine data from a survey of attitudes taken in Switzerland, the only country aside from Liechtenstein where direct democracy is part of the local and national referenda. Their findings revealed that the quality of a direct democracy within each region of the country exhibited a strong, positive correlation with Swiss citizens’ level of life satisfaction.

Indeed, the functionality of a democracy seems to be a crucial factor when determining how influential it will be on happiness. As J.C. Ott writes, the size of government is less important to happiness than the quality of government (i.e., a well-run democracy is a better indicator of people’s happiness than the extent to which citizens have direct direct influence on their government.). This would explain why so many other democratic nations exhibit the same correlation between democracy and happiness as Switzerland, despite not having a national referendum by popular vote. And the quality of a democracy doesn’t just predict the level of happiness of a population; it also seems to have a direct correlation with lower levels of inequality regarding happiness (Ott 2011). In other words, a well-functioning democracy doesn’t just help make its citizens wholistically happier, it also tends to close the gap between classes, religions, and ethnicities when it comes to mutual levels of happiness.

Possibly the strongest evidence in support of this correlation comes from a study published in 2007, which found a strong link between democracy and happiness, even when all other confounding variables were controlled (Dorn, Fisher, et. al 2007). These findings appeared in contrast to previous studies, which had suggested that income was what had the real significant effect on individuals’ happiness. This would indeed make sense in the context of research involving democracies, as democratic countries tend to be wealthier and have a better distribution of wealth throughout the population. However, these researchers found that, over the twenty-eight countries they examined with data from the 1998 International Social Survey Programme, happiness levels in democracies stayed robust, even when variables like religion, language, and of course, income, were controlled (Dorn, Fischer, et. al 2007). Incidentally, these particular findings are also supported by Frey and Stutzer’s research, in which they observed household income to have a minimal effect on happiness, in contrast to the effect of direct democracy (Frey and Stutzer 2000).

One of the most interesting articles I came across in my research was written by Eric Weiner, in which he compiles studies suggesting that happiness may in fact be a prerequisite for a successful democracy. This implies that, in contrast to popular assumption, it is happiness which causes democracy to happen, rather than the other way around, (Weiner 2008). In any case, Weiner’s findings still result in a positive correlation between democracy and happiness, ultimately supporting the original theory.

As you can see, there’s a lot of research pointing to several different sources of happiness, and in some cases democracy. What I ultimately decided to do with my own research, was find out what specific traits of a government are good or bad for happiness. So as I collect data, I’ll be looking at more than just whether a country’s a democracy, and I’ll be controlling for more than just religion, language, and income. First of all, I’m going to make a note of how democratic each country I study is, based on the Freedom House scale (Freedom House). Is there a certain level of democracy where happiness plateaus, or does it just keep getting higher as democracy increases? Next, I’m going to be making a note of the type of democratic or autocratic regime of each country. Democracies can be Parliamentary, Presidential, and Semi-Presidential, while dictatorships can be Civilian, Military, or Royal. This will make is easier to see what specific features in each regime type contribute to happiness. I’ll also be looking at the time since a country’s last regime change, and seeing if that has an effect on happiness. And finally I’ll be looking at the gender of the participants. For some reason, this variable has never been studied before, though one would expect the happiness of women to actually have a higher correlation with democracy than men’s. This is seeing as women’s rights and overall equality tend to increase the more democratic a country becomes, whereas men typically start out with the large majority of rights to begin with.

I know political science is kind of an odd topic for a PLA blog, but I feel this research is important to improving society. After all, if we can pinpoint what it is about a government that makes most people happy, we may be able to model our own government off of those features, thereby making citizens happier around the world. As my research evolves, I’ll keep you guys posted about my findings!

Dorn,  Fischer, Kirchgässner, and Sousa-Poza. “Is it Culture or Democracy? The Impact of Democracy and Culture on Happiness.” Social Indicators Research, Vol. 82, No. 3 (July 2007): 505-526. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.

Freedom House. n.v. Freedom House, 2015. Web. 8 Oct. 2015.

Frey, Bruno S. “Happiness: A Revolution in Economics.” The MIT Press 2008: 177-198. JSTOR. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.

Frey, Bruno S. and Alois Stutzer. “Happiness, Economy, and Institutions.” The Economic Journal, Vol. 110, No. 466 (Oct. 2000): 918-938. JSTOR. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.

Ott, J. C. “Government and Happiness in 130 Countries: Good Governance Fosters Higher Level and More Equality of Happiness.” Social Indicators Research, Vol. 102, No. 1 (May 2011): 3-22. JSTOR. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.

Weiner, Eric. “Will Democracy Make You Happy?” Foreign Policy, No. 165 (Mar.-Apr. 2008): 57-59. JSTOR. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.

Tags: , ,

Leave a Reply


Skip to toolbar