Ukraine and the future of human happiness
Despite all their many flaws, democracies are demonstrably better for overall human happiness than authoritarian regimes
Dr Mark Williamson | 18 March 2022
Is our Western way of life really worth fighting for?
In March 1947, President Truman made a speech that would frame the coming decades. “Every nation must choose between alternative ways of life” he declared. One way was based on democracy and individual freedom; the other on “terror and oppression, a controlled press, fixed elections and the suppression of personal freedoms”.
By the turn of the millennium as Vladimir Putin took office, it seemed clear that life in the free world was happier than elsewhere. The Cold War had been won, Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History was coming to pass and liberal democracy seemed the best route to greater quality of life.
Yet the following decades have seen a major crisis of confidence in the West, as democracies have lurched between disasters – from terrorism, financial crashes and culture wars to failures of leadership on energy, climate change and a global pandemic.
Now it appears that autocracy is in the ascendency, with China on course to become the world’s economic powerhouse and Russia once again making its presence felt through military aggression. Centralised state control may indeed offer many advantages when it comes to protecting national interests and controlling access to resources. So can authoritarian regimes ultimately deliver better quality of life and happier societies for their citizens?
Fortunately, we now have empirical data that can answer this question with much more clarity than the largely rhetorical battle of ideas in the original Cold War.
Today sees the publication of the 10th annual World Happiness Report which assesses wellbeing in countries across the world. The underlying data comes, not from policy experts or biased commentators, but from asking everyday people about their lived experiences in each country. For example, the main Cantril ladder metric asks people to rate their lives on a 0 to 10 scale, with the best possible life being a 10 and the worst possible life being a 0.
The headline findings show northern European countries are again the happiest overall, with Finland retaining the top spot in this year’s global ranking, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Perhaps more interestingly, the data can also help us understand how democracies and authoritarian regimes compare when it comes to human happiness.
Analysis of happiness by regime type shows conclusively that democracies are significantly happier than authoritarian and other non-democratic regimes on average.
Fully democratic countries have an average happiness score of over 7 out of 10 compared to a far lower average score of less than 5 out of 10 for authoritarian regimes. All of the Top 20 happiest countries are democratic and the majority of the least happy countries are authoritarian. Russia comes in at a lowly 80th with China only slightly ahead in 72nd place.
There are of course many flawed democracies that don’t do so well at delivering happiness, India being one notable example. There are also authoritarian regimes with higher happiness levels, notably the oil-rich gulf states of Bahrain, UAE and Saudi Arabia - but none of these make it into the Top 20.
Overall the picture is crystal clear: for all their many flaws, democracies support a better quality of life and greater overall happiness.
When Putin launched his hostile invasion of Ukraine, it appears he expected no meaningful resistance from the Ukrainian people. He was wrong and he clearly misjudged people’s willingness to stand up for their freedom.
It is this same belief in autonomy and self-determination that led countries in Eastern Europe to pursue closer integration with the West. As a result, the wellbeing of their populations has increased significantly, with the latest World Happiness Report noting that the “gap in life evaluations between Western and Eastern Europe is now less than half what it was ten years ago”.
So the eastward expansion of democracy isn’t some US-led conspiracy to threaten Russia; it reflects the fact that, when given the choice, citizens tend to choose democracy and hope over autocracy and fear. They know instinctively that it brings a greater chance for happiness.
Having ruthlessly suppressed these instincts in his own population for so long, this deep-seated human need for autonomy has taken the increasingly isolated Putin by surprise.
Now the big ray of hope amid this ghastly war is that Russian aggression has woken us up to the importance and fragility of the peace and freedom we’ve taken for granted for decades.
Western societies have been mired in a toxic culture war between those on the political left and right. But as Yuval Noah Harari reminds us, the apparent polarisation between left-leaning liberalism and right-leaning nationalism is grounded in something more fundamental. These differing perspectives unite around the shared value of freedom. So as we watch Ukrainians bravely standing up for their liberty, we can find new common ground and rediscover a shared conviction.
Yes Ukrainians are fighting for their homeland, identity and survival; but they are also on the frontline of an existential battle for the future of human happiness. This matters deeply for everyone in the free world and for generations to come.
In December 2021, world leaders took part in a Summit for Democracy where US president Joe Biden warned them that “Democracy doesn’t happen by accident, we have to renew it with each generation." This was, he said “the defining challenge of our time.”
Just a few months earlier at a tense summit with his Russian counterpart in Geneva, Putin had told Biden “There is no happiness in life, there is only a mirage on the horizon”.
On this, and so much more, Putin is demonstrably wrong.
Dr Mark Williamson is the Director of Action for Happiness
