The Politics of Happiness

January 25, 2010
Delving into the burgeoning field of happiness research, former president of Harvard University Bok (The State of the Nation
) sifts through scientific studies on how societal well-being indications can and should be used to shape social and political policy. Beginning with “happiness indexes,” including philosopher Jeremy Bentham and his “felicific calculus,” which would allow governments to quantify their citizenry’s satisfaction, the book addresses the utility of economic growth (if income isn’t tied to happiness, why do nations obsessively focus on increasing the GDP?), societal and economic inequality, family planning and divorce, and political reform, including curbs on campaign finance and lobbying. Bok’s arguments on how good government, access to education, and adequate child care make for a pleasanter society are incontrovertible, and he initiates an important, jargon-free discussion of American public policy, especially when its aims contradict or diminish the public weal.

March 15, 2010
Many readers may be surprised to learn that research on happiness has become an academic "boom industry." Here Bok, former president of Harvard, outlines the work of "happiness scholars" and suggests that their findings would be an "eminently defensible way" of informing public policy, at least as valuable as opinion polls or economic indexes. Among the most significant findings he cites is that an increase in wealth does not correlate with an increase in happiness and that rising inequality has not caused a decrease. From these and other points, Bok argues for many general and specific policy measures that, he believes, would add to the sum of happiness in the United States. These range from his doubt that constant economic growth is a good thing and his caution against entering "dubious wars" to recommendations on physical education, marriage counseling, and even sleep disorders. VERDICT Readers who know Bok's work will recognize many topics in governance, civic life, and education that he has approached from other angles in other books, most recently, "Our Underachieving Colleges". All readers will find him in turn provocative and quixotic, but it will take a true policy wonk to fully engage with this book.Bob Nardini, Nashville

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