Exploring the ‘Partial Connections’ between Growth and Degrowth Debates: Bhutan’s Policy of Gross National Happiness

2021 ◽  
pp. 026010792110321
Author(s):  
Katsu Masaki
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Economic Order ◽  
Policy Objective ◽  
Gross National Happiness ◽  
Structural Shift ◽  
Human Wellbeing ◽  
Development Plans ◽  
National Happiness

Debates on degrowth have emerged with the realisation that the existing growth-oriented economic order has infringed upon our biosphere’s limits and human wellbeing. This must be rectified in favour of a more sustainable and equitable order through the promotion of green, caring and communal economies, as pointed out by degrowth advocates. However, these advocates argue for abandoning economic growth as a policy objective, thereby missing an opportunity to heed the potential of forging ‘partial connections’ between growth-seeking and degrowth-oriented measures. To explore a remedy against this pitfall, this study examines Bhutan’s policy of Gross National Happiness (GNH), which downplays a growth-for-growth’s sake approach but avoids precluding the pursuit of growth, in line with the historical unfolding of the country’s development plans and its Buddhism-based mores. Although GNH is yet to elicit a structural shift towards a full-fledged post-growth society, its balanced stance aids the search for a clue on how best to promote a post-growth transition with an intricate combination of growth-seeking and degrowth-oriented measures. Despite this potential, GNH has been largely overlooked by degrowth advocates, who depart from their own principle of valuing ‘locally determined paths’. JEL: B59, 029

Exploring the Origins of Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-292
Author(s):  
Katsu Masaki ◽  
Jit Tshering
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Gross National Happiness ◽  
Gradual Process ◽  
Invented Tradition ◽  
Development Plans ◽  
Recent Origin ◽  
National Happiness ◽  
Security Concerns ◽  
Development Discourses

Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness (GNH) is often dismissed by its critics as being an instrument for policy elites to address ‘national security concerns’ that started to threaten their grasp on the state around the turn of the millennium. This study problematizes this line of criticism that relegates GNH to an ‘invented tradition’ of recent origin. For this purpose, this study draws on Roy Wagner’s notion of ‘invention’ that draws attention to how various sets of meanings are brought together. A historical analysis of the country’s development plans points to several origins of GNH, including ‘Buddhism and Bhutan’s traditional socio-economic system’ and ‘outside concepts’ holding sway in international debates on development. GNH has undergone a long and gradual process of elaboration in view of Buddhist mores and development discourses, while also taking into account national security concerns. This study concludes by warning against the reductionistic stance of GNH critics, in favour of a more balanced perspective that captures the multiplicity of the origins of GNH.

Gross National Happiness (GNH)

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gene R. Laczniak ◽  
Nicholas J. C. Santos
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Gross National Happiness ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Classical Utilitarianism ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Common ◽  
National Happiness ◽  
Essential Contribution ◽  
Purpose Of Business

This theoretical commentary explores the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH) and connects it with several central macromarketing concepts such as QoL, ethics, the common good, the purpose of market activity as well as the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The paper portrays GNH as a normative concept that captures collective well-being; it categorizes GNH, at least from the standpoint of Western moral philosophy, as most closely aligned with classical utilitarianism, and it distinguishes GNH from QoL on the basis of its predominantly aspirational and subjective orientation. It asserts that GNH can be seen as one manifestation of the common good, and, in that manner can be perceived as a ‘more ethical’ conception of the purpose of business activity. Finally, it links GNH to promising areas of Macromarketing scholarship. One essential contribution of this commentary is that it differentiates subjective community happiness from more objective measures of QoL familiar to macromarketing studies.

scholarly journals Notes on Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness and its Measurement

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Eduardo Monaco
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Multidimensional Poverty ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Environmental Preservation ◽  
Gross National Happiness ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
National Happiness

Bhutan, a Himalayan landlocked country of just about 750,000 inhabitants, has since the 1980s adopted a unique, holistic approach to development governance commonly referred to as 'Gross National Happiness' (GNH), which aims at achieving equitable socio-economic progress in harmony with other fundamental 'pillars' such as environmental preservation, good governance, and protection of the local cultural identity. The strategy - inspired, above all, by solid Tantric Buddhist belief - significantly differentiates itself from the mainstream GDP-driven, output-maximizing paradigms by maintaining that truly sustainable development can only originate from acknowledging the equal dignity and crucial interdependence of various dimensions of both human and natural life. This paper, drafted in the month of December 2015, briefly analyzes GNH policy’s key tenets and achievements – more conspicuous in regards to democratic governance and environment than in terms of inclusive, multidimensional poverty reduction, as well as its recently devised measuring tool, the GNH Index, and the results of its latest surveys. Factors like the peculiar Buddhist culture that informs it, the relatively simple economic infrastructure at this early stage of development, as well as the limited size of the politically active, urbanized population, all make GNH per se a distinctively Bhutanese phenomenon. Nevertheless, the fundamental paradigm shift that GNH advocates has already resonated beyond the countries’ borders, reinforcing a growing trend across international development actors towards a more comprehensive, qualitative definition and measurement of societal development.

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