The Political Economy of Human Happiness

Radcliff, Benjamin
Benjamin Radcliff is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and is affiliated with the Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy and the Higgins Labor Studies Program at the University of Notre Dame. He has also held academic positions at Rutgers University and Vanderbilt University. He has been a fellow at the Merriam Lab for Analytic Political Research at the University of Illinois, the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Study of the Humanities, and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies. Radcliff has published extensively in the leading peer-reviewed journals in political science, including the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Perspectives on Politics and the British Journal of Political Science, along with a variety of other distinguished journals. His work has also appeared in prominent journals in sociology (including Social Forces), labor studies and public policy. He has co-edited two books, including the well-received Happiness, Economics, and Politics (2009).

Data, methods and theories of contemporary social science can be applied to resolve how political outcomes in democratic societies determine the quality of life that citizens experience. Radcliff seeks to provide an objective answer to the debate between left and right over what public policies best contribute to people leading positive and rewarding lives. Radcliff offers an empirical answer, relying on the same canons of reason and evidence required of any other issue amenable to study through social-scientific means. The analysis focuses on the consequences of three specific political issues: the welfare state and the general size of government, labor organization, and state efforts to protect workers and consumers through economic regulation. The results indicate that in each instance, the program of the Left best contributes to citizens leading more satisfying lives and, critically, that the benefits of greater happiness accrue to everyone in society, rich and poor alike.

Radcliff examines the question of how political outcomes in democratic societies determine the quality of life that citizens experience.

1. The democratic pursuit of happiness; 2. Market democracy; 3. Citizens or market participants?; 4. The scientific study of happiness; 5. The size of the state; 6. Labor unions and economic regulation; 7. The American states; 8. Between market and morality.