Bhutan is a small, poor Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayas, between India and China. In 1972 its then king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, proposed the concept of Dzongkha, or Gross National Happiness.
His argument was based on the perceived difficulties with the universally used concept of Gross Domestic Product, a measure of the annual output of a country. This included output which did not add to well-being, such as defence, police and pollution clean-up), while it did not include other measures which did add to well-being such as volunteer work and unpaid domestic work. It also did not take account of income distribution. Thus, GDP was not a good indicator of standard of living, even if the latter was defined as purely economic.
In addition, some forms of economic development are uneconomic if measured on a cost-benefit basis, particularly as in many cases the benefits are private, accruing to individuals or corporations, while the costs are public, borne by the community as a whole.
The concept of Gross National Happiness signalled commitment to building an economy based on Bhutan’s culture and its Buddhist spiritual values. It held that material and spiritual
development occur side by side, and reinforce each other. Four principles underpinned the concept:
? promotion of sustainable development
? preservation and promotion of cultural values
? conservation of the natural environment
? establishment of good governance.
These were then operationalised into eight measures:
? physical, mental and spiritual health
? time balance
? social and community vitality
? cultural vitality
? education
? living standards
? good governance
? ecological vitality.
In 2007 Bhutan ranked eighth out of 178 countries in subjective well-being, and was the only country in the top 20 to have a very low GDP (Nelson 2011).
What are the difficulties in calculating Gross National Happiness? Is Gross National Happiness a concept that is only relevant to a country such as Bhutan, which is small, isolated, little involved in world trade, and with a high degree of reverence for its king and his ideas?