Subjective Well-Being and Quality of Government – Why Happy Citizens Are Good for Democracy

• We propose that citizens hold state authorities responsible for their subjective well-being. When things go well, citizens reward authorities with support. When life conditions fall below the expected level, citizens punish authorities by withholding support. As a consequence, peoples’ well-being collectively affects the long- term conditions for high quality government by building or dismantling voluntary compliant behavior. Three types of empirical evidence support the argument: First, cross-sectional data from European Value Survey 2008 shows that life satisfaction predicts political support attitudes controlling for individual-level and country-level factors. Second, data from the Swiss Household Panel documents that political support attitudes are undermined by the termination of a close personal relationship. Third, data from an original panel of Swedish vacation travelers shows that support attitudes are undermined by the trivial experience of a failed vacation in the sun.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

legtimacy; political support; quality of life; Quality of Government

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)