论幸福与教育目的

教育作为人类的一项伟大事业,其目的与幸福紧密相连。但两者并不等同,幸福不是也不应是教育目的。幸福需要教育,教育目的的实现是实现幸福的重要条件;教育关注幸福,以幸福为指标衡量其目的的实现,但教育并不刻意追求幸福。     

收入、健康与医疗保险对老年人幸福感的影响

本文使用中国9个省、2200名55岁以上老年人的微观调查数据,主要检验了收入水平、健康状况与医疗保险对主观幸福感的影响。Ordered Logit回归分析结果表明：收入增加能够显著提高城镇老年人的主观幸福感,收入差距的影响不显著;对农村老年人而言,收入的作用不明显,而收入差距则有显著的负向影响。心理健康和城乡老年人幸福感呈高度的正相关,记忆力、日常生活自理能力等身体健康因素也具有显著的正向影响。公费医疗显著提高农村老年人的幸福感,城镇职工医疗保险和合作医疗分别对城镇和农村老年人幸福感具有积极的作用。总体上,城镇老年人的主观幸福感高于农村,东部老年人幸福感高于中部,中部高于西部。因此,增加老年人的收入水平,完善老年人医疗保险制度,并逐步协调城乡和地区经济发展,有助于从整体上提高老年人的幸福感。     

Does Satisfaction with Democracy Really Increase Happiness? Direct Democracy and Individual Satisfaction in Switzerland

This paper takes the influential ??direct democracy makes people happy??-research as a starting point and asks whether direct democracy impacts individual satisfaction. Unlike former studies we distinguish two aspects of individual satisfaction, namely satisfaction with life (??happiness??) and with how democracy works. Based on multilevel analysis of the 26 Swiss cantons we show that the theoretical assumption on which the happiness hypothesis is based has to be questioned, as there is very little evidence for a robust relationship between satisfaction with democracy and life satisfaction. Furthermore, we do not find a substantive positive effect of direct democracy on happiness. However, with respect to satisfaction with democracy, our analysis shows some evidence for a procedural effect of direct democracy, i.e. positive effects related to using direct democratic rights, rather than these rights per se.     

论密尔对功利主义的证明

密尔对功利主义的证明可以分以下几个步骤：首先他探讨伦理学和科学的区分，说明功利主义不可能有科学的证明；其次他探讨伦理学方法，对直觉主义伦理学和归纳主义伦理学进行分析，说明功利主义在什么意义上是可以证明的；再次，对功利主义予以证明。他首先假设人的认知机能和意欲机能是可以统一起来的，然后再从三个方面进行证明：(1)从“可见的到可欲求的”证明；(2)从个人幸福到公共幸福的证明；(3)只有幸福是值得欲求的，其他一切或是幸福的组成部分，或是达到幸福的手段。最后，对最大多数人的最大幸福予以证明。     

人民幸福:中国共产党人永远的历史担当

人民幸福是中国共产党人自建党之日起就铭刻在理想旗帜上的奋斗目标。为着这一伟大目标,中国共产党人作出了不懈努力、无私付出和巨大牺牲,同时也取得了伟大成就。在长期的奋斗过程中,我们看到,我们党形成的关于人民幸福的思想,成为了马克思主义理论的重要组成部分;以毛泽东、邓小平、江泽民为核心的历代中国共产党人为人民幸福进行了积极的探索和深入的实践;新时期以胡锦涛为核心的中国共产党人在科学发展观指导下赋予了人民幸福更加丰富的时代内涵,中国共产党人正昂首行进在为人民谋幸福的中国特色社会主义道路上。     

Well-Being in the Welfare State: Level Not Higher, Distribution Not More Equitable

The terms well-being and welfare are Often bracketed together, especially well-being and state welfare. The level of well-being is believed to be higher in welfare states, and its distribution more equitable. This theory is tested here in a comparative study of 41 nations from 1980 to 1990. The size of state welfare is measured by social security expenditures. The well-being of citizens is measured in terms of the degree to which they lead healthy and happy lives. Contrary to expectation, there appears to be no link between the size of the welfare state and the level of well-being within it. In countries with generous social security schemes, people are not healthier or happier than in equally affluent countries where the state is less open-handed. Increases or reductions in social security expenditure are not related to a rise or fall in the level of health and happiness either. There also appears to be no connection between the size of state welfare and equality in well-being among citizens of the state. In countries where social security expenditure is high, the dispersion of health and happiness is not smaller than in equally prosperous countries with less social insurance spending. Again, increases and reductions in social security expenditure are not linked with equality in health and happiness among citizens. This counterintuitive result raises five questions: (1) Is this really true? (2) If so, what could explain this lack of effect? (3) Why is it so difficult to believe this result? (4) How should this information affect social policy? (5) What can we learn from further research?     

The (Null) Effects of Happiness on Affective Polarization,Conspiracy Endorsement,and Deep Fake Recognition: Evidence from Five Survey Experiments in Three Countries

Affective polarization is a key concern in America and other democracies. Although past evidence suggests some ways to minimize it, there are no easily applicable interventions that have been found to work in the increasingly polarized climate. This project examines whether irrelevant factors, or incidental happiness more specifically, have the power to reduce affective polarization (i.e., misattribution of affect or “carryover effect”). On the flip side, happiness can minimize systematic processing, thus enhancing beliefs in conspiracy theories and impeding individual ability to recognize deep fakes. Three preregistered survey experiments in the US, Poland, and the Netherlands (total N?=?3611) induced happiness in three distinct ways. Happiness had no effects on affective polarization toward political outgroups and hostility toward various divisive social groups, and also on endorsement of conspiracy theories and beliefs that a deep fake was real. Two additional studies in the US and Poland (total N?=?2220), also induced anger and anxiety, confirming that all these incidental emotions had null effects. These findings, which emerged uniformly in three different countries, among different partisan and ideological groups, and for those for whom the inductions were differently effective, underscore the stability of outgroup attitudes in contemporary America and other countries.

     

Benevolence,malevolence and economic theory

How selfish soever man be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it.—Adam Smith inThe Theory of Moral Sentiments.     

Aristotle's Introduction to the Problem of Happiness: On Book I of the Nicomachean Ethics

The study of Book I of the Nicomachean Ethics is useful today in part because it deals with a question—the nature of human happiness—whose relevance is obvious. But in dealing with that question, Book I compels us to raise difficulties for ourselves that, far from being obvious, are in danger of being forgotten. Chief among these difficulties are, first, the true character of our hope for happiness and, ultimately, the necessity of there being a kind of divine providence if that hope is to be realized. Inasmuch as we still long for happiness, we must still undergo the pull of that necessity, however distant it may appear to us to be. In bringing out our deepest concern in this way, the study of the first book of the Ethics also prepares us to become serious students of Aristotle's "philosophy of human matters" as a whole, which is concerned with the reality of providence because it is concerned with the possibility of philosophy as a way of life.     

Happiness and public choice

Measuring individual welfare using data on reported subjective well-being has made great progress. It offers a new way of confronting public choice hypotheses with field data, e.g., with respect to partisan preferences or rents in the public bureaucracy. Insights from public choice also help to assess the role of happiness measures in public policy. We emphasize that maximizing aggregate happiness as a social welfare function neglects incentive problems and political institutions while citizens are reduced to metric stations. The goal of happiness research should be to improve the nature of the processes through which individuals can express their preferences.     

Majority summits: Decision‐making inside the cabinet and out: Italy, 1970–1990

This article examines two major changes which have developed in response to the weakness of the cabinet government in Italy: first, the strengthening of the Prime Minister through a set of new laws and informal arrangements; and second, the establishment of an extra‐governmental device of cabinet decision‐making: the coalition parties' Majority Summit bringing together party leaders and governmental representatives. The analysis of their number, composition, content, seat and outcome shows how these informal arenas have become highly institutionalised. Over the last 20 years, in fact, the intra‐governmental co‐ordination and collegiality has been replaced by an extra‐governmental party bargaining managed by Majority Summits.     

Stress and performance: Investigating relationship between occupational stress,career satisfaction,and job performance of police employees

The purpose of this research is to explore the impact of occupational stress on job performance of police employees. We theorized and tested the role of career satisfaction in the relationship between occupational stress and job performance as an underlying psychological mechanism. Primary data have been collected from 271 police employees working at AJ&K Pakistan. Results of this research study have shown that occupational stress is negatively related to career satisfaction, in‐role performance, and extra‐role performance of police employees. Moreover, career satisfaction mediates the relationships between occupational stress and in‐role and extra‐role performance of police employees. This research study has called researchers' and policy makers' attention towards an important issue of occupational stress in the police profession. The research will play an important role in compelling the top management, authorities, policy makers, and government officials of police to ponder over the issues of occupational stress aimed at enhancing the job performance including in‐role and extra‐role performance of police employees.     

Tullock challenges: happiness, revolutions, and democracy

Gordon Tullock is one of the most important of the founders and contributors to Public Choice. Two innovations are typical ??Tullock Challenges.?? The first relates to method: the measurement of subjective well-being, or happiness. The second relates to digital social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, and to some extent Google. Both innovations lead to strong incentives by governments to manipulate the policy outcomes. In general, ??What is important will be manipulated by the government.?? To restrain government manipulation, one has to turn to Constitutional Economics and increase the possibilities for direct popular participation and federalism or introduce random mechanisms.     

Government spending and happiness of the population: additional evidence from large cross-country samples

This study uses large cross-country samples and several measures of happiness, income, and government spending to revisit the relation between government spending and the population’s happiness. The main finding is that increased government spending does not lower happiness in broad cross-country contexts. Much caution is, therefore, urged in interpreting the negative association between government spending and happiness reported in some earlier studies and the suggested policy implications. Three additional points are noted. First, the weight of the evidence suggests a significant positive association between income and happiness. Second, estimates based on income and government-share data from Penn World Table and the new International Comparison Program show similar patterns. Third, the parameter for generalized trust seems fragile.     

Revisiting the role of civic organizations in Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan: Confidence,membership, and democratic practice

In many emerging and authoritarian countries, civil society organizations that focus on political or sensitive policy issues are being cracked down upon, while service-oriented ones are given a relatively greater ability to operate. What might the consequence of this be for democratic practice given the important role civic organizations play in this process? We examine this question by considering whether the absence of confidence in a country's governing institutions is related to membership in service-rather than governance-focused civic organizations, and how such membership is associated with elite-challenging, political activities in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. We find that individuals who have no confidence in state institutions are less likely to seek membership in governance-focused civic organizations, but not necessarily in service-focused ones. At the same time, membership in both types of civic organizations is associated with participation in political activities, while beliefs that a country is run democratically decreases it. This suggests that a variety of civic organizational types, even those without an explicit governance-focus, contingent on perceptions of democratic governance and other covariates held constant, enhance democratic practice.     

Involvement in voluntary associations in North America and Western Europe: Trends and correlates 1981–2000

Abstract

There is no lack of studies that point at discomforting trends in community life and citizens' social and political involvement in contemporary society. According to various indicators, Americans have become increasingly disconnected from their families, friends, neighbours and associations, leading to a decline of civic community and social trust and to more individual unhappiness. Similar developments are supposed to take place elsewhere. In this article we use data from the European and World Values Studies to address, for North America and Western Europe, (1) trends regarding voluntary associations, social trust, political involvement and happiness in the 1981–2000 period; (2) changing patterns and types of involvement in associations; and (3) macro and micro relationships between this involvement and political involvement, social trust and happiness. We find no general decline in these traits, no trend towards more passive membership, and only mixed evidence for positive connections between involvement, trust and happiness.     

Cost Effectiveness Analysis and Transportation: Practices,Problems, and Proposals

Cost effective analysis (CEA) is used frequently in health and other fields in which controlled experiments are possible. The problem is, however, that for many activities that are outsourced in infrastructure finance, we have no comparison groups, and when comparison groups are present, we have no data on quality, presenting any interested researcher or decision maker with some serious dilemmas. In this article we establish some basic guidelines for the collection and use of quality data, and associate these with our own errors in attempting CEA with a lack of an existing quality measure.     

“经济贫困”还是“心理贫困”:幸福感悖论新解

家庭经济和外显自尊、自我接纳、被接纳感及其交互作用对大学生幸福感的影响同时存在;外显自尊与自我接纳是家庭经济与幸福感的中介变量;在农村与贫困生样本模型中,家庭经济、外显自尊、自我接纳的主效应显著;在城市与非贫困生样本模型中,家庭经济与外显自尊的交互效应显著。幸福感悖论之所以存在就是因为只考虑了经济与幸福感的关系而忽略了心理因素在其中的作用,心理贫困与经济贫困都会影响幸福感。     

“The Big Society,” Public Expenditure,and Volunteering

The debate on volunteering has paid insufficient attention to the relationship between public spending and volunteering. The importance of this relationship is highlighted by the British government's “Big Society” plan, which asserts that an increase in volunteering will compensate for the withdrawal of public agencies and spending. This idea is based on the widely held belief that a high degree of government intervention decreases voluntary activities. This article uses a multidisciplinary approach to improve understanding of how public spending affects the decision to volunteer. A theoretical model conceptualizes this relationship in terms of time donation by employed individuals. The model is tested empirically through an econometric analysis of two survey data sets and interpretative analysis of narratives of local volunteers and public professionals. The results suggest that volunteering is likely to decline when government intervention decreases and that a collaborative approach to sustaining volunteering is needed.     

Sustainable development challenges in a war‐torn country: Perceived danger and psychological well‐being

The laborer's physical and mental health, well‐being, and happiness are among the major indicators for measuring each nation's sustainable development. A conflictive and hostile external environment (war zone) poses considerable difficulty and psychological distress to workers and nonworkers. Therefore, working in such a physically dangerous business environment may hurt worker's well‐being and happiness that in turn may reduce the workers' productivity at the workplace. A high level of laborers' productivity in public and private sectors is essential for achieving sustainable development in the long term. Therefore, this paper examines the effects of perceived danger on employees' psychological well‐being in war‐torn Afghanistan, an issue being addressed for the first time. We tested the moderating role of social support from coworkers on this effect in order to have a broader vision of which individuals are healthier and happier in a physically dangerous working environment. Two survey data sets were collected from 190 employees working in various small private and public businesses in Herat, Afghanistan. Our results reveal the negative impact of perceived danger on employees' psychological well‐being and that employees who receive little or no social support from their peers feel the negative effects of a physically dangerous working condition even more acutely.