Happy talk: a former Harvard president makes the case for government promotion of happiness.

• Author: Longman, Phillip
• Position: 'The Politics of Happiness: What Government Can Learn from the New Research on Well-Being' - Book review

The Politics of Happiness: What Government Can Learn from the New Research on Well-Being

by Derek Bok

Princeton University Press, 272 pp.

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In the faraway kingdom of Bhutan there once lived a ruler devoted to the happiness of his people. Upon assuming his throne, he declared that the measure of success in his realm would no longer be increases in material wealth; instead, the Himalayan nation's guiding star would be expanded "Gross National Happiness." Accordingly, King Wanchuk set forth a five-year plan, declaring, "If, at the end of the plan period our people are not happier than they were before, we should have failed."

This was in 1972. The plan called for expanded democracy, literacy, environmental protection, and chauvinistic support for the colorful religious and cultural practices of the nation's ethnic majority. This last has been hard on the minority Nepalese, some 100,000 of whom now live in refugee camps. But aggregate happiness among the remaining people reportedly remains high, with the only major downer being the hoards of visiting hippies, adventure tourists, and assorted seekers hoping to share in the glow.

Recently, Bhutan's commitment to Gross National Happiness has also attracted a more serious foreign admirer. In his new book, The Politics of Happiness, Derek Bok, the two-time president of Harvard, writes, "The sheer utopian audacity of a country that commits itself to making happiness the centerpiece of national policy is enough to compel a respectful interest." He wonders if maximized happiness shouldn't be our own national goal as well.

All the more so, Bok continues, because we no longer have to count on gurus, sacred texts, or wise kings to tease out the way to happiness. Instead, we can rely on the findings of Western social scientists who over the last forty years or so have created what Bok characterizes as a "boom industry" in happiness research. There are international conferences of highly credentialed academic happiness investigators who publish thousands of peer-reviewed articles every year in journals exclusively dedicated to their specialty. Both ordinary people and governments, Bok asserts, should draw on this ever-growing body of research to guide us to the good life.

So far, this sounds like a book that will be a pleasure to read. Who isn't intrinsically interested in what makes for happiness? Moreover, though the idea that maximized happiness should be a goal of statecraft isn't new--the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham pushed it in the eighteenth...