Government & Happiness

happiness data stories you can use to make decisions in your

life

Feeling safe

darker = feel more safe on average

lighter = feel less safe on average

A score of 100 would mean everybody feels completely safe. A score of 0 would mean

nobody does.

Our average overall average is 58

Retired people trust the national government more than others, but overall, when measuring trust in local and national government, feeling safe and feeling public officials pay attention to what people think, nobody is particularly happy with the government.

Do fully employed people trust the government more?

White/Caucasian/Europeans and South Asians score highest when measuring trust in local and national government, feeling safe and feeling public officials pay attention to what people think, but only slightly more than other races.

Does race make a difference ?

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Do men trust in the government more than women?

Not really, except they feel there is a bit less corruption.

But they do feel safer.

The moral of the story:

We are not happy with our government.

scale 0-100

Almedalen Political Festival modeled after a Swedish program: An annual 3-day to week long public meeting for politicians, the public, journalists and NGOs. All parties have equal opportunity. In Sweden, the political festival is national event. In Denmark, cities and regions hold politial festivals for shorter times (3 days).

A policy of happiness in government

example: http://www.almedalsveckan.info/6895

Participatory BudgetingCitizens meet with policy makers to come to agreement on the priorities for part of the local government budget for their neighborhood or the city and help the implementation of projects or policies.

source: http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/10713IIED.pdfexample: http://eau.sagepub.com/content/26/1/257

A policy of happiness in government

Social Media & E-GovernmentNew York City has over 300 social media channels, from you tube for the environmental protection department to facebook for the mayor’s office. NYC also took a hint from Beijing city in implementing E-Government, where by internal and external (everything from filing in court to monitoring programs and forming policy), suppliers and other is streamlined through use of information technology.

example: http://www1.nyc.gov/connect/social-media.pageresource: http://www.nyc.gov/html/ia/gp/downloads/pdf/beijingwhitepaper.pdf

A policy of happiness in government

You are the Happiness Movement

Use the Gross National Happiness index at work

Your Happiness Counts.

happycounts.org Counts Your Happiness.