What Can Sense Making Economies Learn from the GNH of Bhutan?

Abstract

The Gross National Product (GNP) and the Gross National Happiness (GNH) are wellbeing indicators. The well-known GNP stresses on the importance of the national product or the rather objective wellbeing. While GNH, invented in 1972 in the small Buddhist Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan, focuses on the broader concept of (national) happiness or the rather subjective wellbeing. Historically GNP developed as an indicator in a society in which avoiding the fear of not having enough to survive, was the priority. GNH in Bhutan was based on the target of developing our longing for happiness. And this notwithstanding the fact that in 1972 Bhutan still belonged to the world poorest countries. Philosophically one can connect these foundations of fear and happiness with analyses of Western philosophers like Hobbes (his Leviathan starts with the quote: “Fear and I are twins”). In Buddhist philosophy fear and happiness also are two crucial notions, expressed for instance by suffering and enlightenment. Methodologically this paper is based on the one hand on a literature study of philosophical thinkers who studied determinants of wellbeing and on the other hand on numerical data as published by the CBS, the Center for Bhutanese Studies and GNH Research on the occasion of the second measurement of the GNH in Bhutan in 2015. In the first two parts of the paper we concentrate on the wellbeing indicators GNP and GNH and their philosophical background. In the third part we discover what we can learn from the 2015 GNH Survey of Bhutan.

An earlier version of this chapter appeared in the Journal Society and Economy (May 2018).