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ABSTRACT
Although economic output has nearly doubled in the last 30 years, life satisfaction levels in the UK and other developed countries have remained resolutely flat, with evidence that depression and anxiety are increasing, notably among young people. While governments in the developed world focus on economic development as the key route to well-being, a growing body of research suggests that, once basic needs have been met, this approach is flawed. This well-being manifesto for a flourishing society, produced by the think tank new economics foundation (nef), proposes eight alternative priorities for government action to promote well-being. While the focus is on UK policy and the examples are largely drawn from the UK, the key themes of the manifesto will apply to many developed country contexts.
One of the key aims of a democratic government is to promote the good life: a flourishing society where citizens are happy, healthy, capable and engaged - in other words, with high levels of well-being. Well-being is more than just happiness. As well as feeling satisfied and happy, well-being means developing as a person, being fulfilled, and making a contribution to the community. What would politics look like if promoting people's well-being was one of government's main aims? The new economics foundation (nef) set out to answer this question through the production of a well-being manifesto.
The new economics foundation's model of well-being has two personal dimensions and a social context:
* satisfaction with life, which is generally measured by an indicator called life satisfaction that captures satisfaction, pleasure and enjoyment (Diener, 1994)
* personal development, for which there is not yet one standard psychological indicator. The concept includes being engaged in life, curiosity, 'flow' (a state of absorption where hours pass like minutes), personal development and growth, autonomy, fulfilling potential, having a purpose in life, and the feeling that life has meaning (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997; Ryff, 1995; Ryan & Deci, 2001)
* social well-being, which describes a sense of belonging to our communities, a positive attitude towards others, feeling that we are contributing to society and engaging in pro-social behaviour, and believing that society is capable of developing positively. This schema is based on the classification of social well-being developed by Corey Keyes (Keyes & Haidt, 2003).
Where...