IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/smo/epaper/008tc.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Right to Happiness – A Challenge for International Organizations and Governments

Author

Listed:
  • Titus Corlatean

    (Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University, Bucharest, Romania)

Abstract

Through all his life, the humans seek happiness. Across the world, people aspire to live happily without fear to something or someone, and in harmony with God or with nature. In a world shaken by economic crisis, natural disasters or armed conflicts, life has shown that to be truly happy, in addition to material wealth, people also need spiritual wellbeing. We need a new paradigm of sustainable development. Economic wellbeing, social and a healthy environment together define the concept of happiness on a global scale. This might be implemented through a generic index named the gross global happiness index. UN, OECD, EC bodies and governments of some countries have understood that only economic indicators are not enough to develop public policies able to find solutions to the problems of the contemporary world. Economic data should be complemented with information designed to measure quality of life not only in material terms. The international community should promote sustainable development capable of ensuring every opportunity to seek happiness. The debates on the subject, held at international level could result, among other things, that the right to happiness should be recognized legally binding. There are already proposals for inclusion in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. This paper is a call for continued efforts made by the governments of some countries and several international bodies towards the elaboration of public policies able to lead to sustainable development and improving the quality of life.

Suggested Citation

  • Titus Corlatean, 2019. "Right to Happiness – A Challenge for International Organizations and Governments," Proceedings of the 14th International RAIS Conference, August 19-20, 2019 008TC, Research Association for Interdisciplinary Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:smo:epaper:008tc
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://rais.education/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/008TC.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Kristina Maslauskaite, 2011. "Can policy make us happier? Individual characteristics, socio-economic factors and life satisfaction in Central and Eastern Europe," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 5(1), pages 77-96.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/7fst0pcf5j8cr99e1nuobt97rn is not listed on IDEAS
    2. repec:prg:jnlpep:v:preprint:id:658:p:1-18 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Sergei Guriev & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, 2009. "(Un)happiness in Transition," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(2), pages 143-168, Spring.
    4. Nikolova, Milena, 2016. "Minding the happiness gap: Political institutions and perceived quality of life in transition," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 45(S), pages 129-148.
    5. Samuel Adedayo MUYIWA, 2021. "Influence of Politics of Governance on Management of Coronavirus in Nigeria," RAIS Journal for Social Sciences, Research Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, vol. 5(1), pages 29-38, May.
    6. Sujarwoto Sujarwoto & Gindo Tampubolon, 2015. "Decentralisation and Citizen Happiness: A Multilevel Analysis of Self-rated Happiness in Indonesia," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 455-475, April.
    7. Asadullah, M. Niaz & Xiao, Saizi & Yeoh, Emile, 2018. "Subjective well-being in China, 2005–2010: The role of relative income, gender, and location," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 83-101.
    8. Botezat, Alina, 2017. "Austerity plan announcements and the impact on the employees’ wellbeing," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-16.
    9. Camilla Lenzi & Giovanni Perucca, 2016. "Life Satisfaction across Cities: Evidence from Romania," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(7), pages 1062-1077, July.
    10. Nazim Habibov & Alena Auchynnikava & Rong Luo, 2019. "Does Community Level Trust Improve Self-Rated Welfare?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 146(3), pages 669-697, December.
    11. Cristina Bernini & Alessandro Tampieri, 2017. "Urbanization and its Effects on the Happiness Domains," DEM Discussion Paper Series 17-10, Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg.
    12. Celia Dana BESCIU & Armenia ANDRONICEANU, 2017. "The link between social inequalities, health’ system characteristics and R&D expenditure- worldwide evidence," Romanian Statistical Review, Romanian Statistical Review, vol. 65(2), pages 21-41, June.
    13. Camilla Lenzi & Giovanni Perucca, 2020. "The nexus between innovation and wellbeing across the EU space: What role for urbanisation?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(2), pages 323-349, February.
    14. Kalenborn, Christine & Lessmann, Christian, 2014. "Regional Income Inequality lowers Life Satisfaction: Evidence from OECD Countries," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100561, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    15. Ręklewski Marek & Ryczkowski Maciej, 2016. "The Polish Regional Labour Market Welfare Indicator and Its Links to Other Well-being Measures," Comparative Economic Research, Sciendo, vol. 19(3), pages 113-132, September.
    16. Nazim Habibov & Elvin Afandi, 2015. "Pre- and Post-crisis Life-Satisfaction and Social Trust in Transitional Countries: An Initial Assessment," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 121(2), pages 503-524, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    right to happiness; prosperity; human rights; sustainable development; public policy; GDP; economic growth; international community; the United Nations;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:smo:epaper:008tc. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Eduard David (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://rais.education/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.