University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

States: Building Blocks of Some Responsible Leaders
Bhutan, the USA and other “happy” countries
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While most developing countries copy the USA and other developed countries in
their aim to maximize their Gross National Product (GNP), an indicator of economic
welfare, Bhutan aims to maximize Gross National Happiness (GNH), an indicator of
the quality of life. Bhutan’s efforts are praiseworthy: the country takes its own path
to the future wellbeing of its citizens and natural environment. Most developing
countries follow the ecologically and socio-culturally destructive highway that the
USA and other Western countries have built after the Second World War to become
economically wealthy countries. In current global negotiations concerning the
mitigation of climate change, shrinking biodiversity and other burning environmental
and socio-cultural problems, most developing countries, with China, Brazil and
Mexico in the forefront, insist that they should be allowed to pollute and destroy life
just like the Western countries did, in order to achieve the same economic standard
of living.
Bhutan is one of the few countries, which has chosen a different, independent path to
future. In 1972 King Gyalpo Jigme Singye Wangchuck came to the conclusion that
the development of a country cannot be measured only by monetary instruments. He
initiated the creation of the happiness of citizens index (Ezechieli 2003). Bhutan is a
Buddhist Kingdom on the Himalayan mountains: a small country between two giants,
India and China. Buddhism advocates the middle road to happiness. Bhutan's
happiness index takes account of equitable and sustainable socio-economic
development, conservation of the natural environment, preservation and promotion
of traditional culture, development of good governance, and the satisfaction and
spiritual growth derived from them. The happiness index stands on four pillars:
economic development, ecosystem biodiversity, social conditions and political
circumstances. The government of Bhutan has ascertained that an index based on
these factors is more human and holistic than GNP.
The operationalization of the happiness index is challenging and still being tuned.
International conferences on the Gross National Happiness (GNH) with researchers,
NGOs and governmental organizations have been held in 2005, 2006 and 2007. The
critics say that since the GNH is based on subjective judgements, governments may
interpret its aspects the way they like. In practice Bhutan has excluded ethnic
Nepalese living in Bhutan from the calculations – their happiness does not seem to
concern the Bhutanese government. Cultural diversity does not seem to count.
In a well-known metric called the Subjective Well-being, Bhutan is ranked 8 th out of
178 countries (White 2007). Bhutan is the only country with a very low GNP in the
top 20. Denmark is ranked first, then Switzerland, Austria, Iceland, Bahamas,
Finland and Sweden. The USA is on the 23 rd place in this ranking. Congo, Zimbabwe
and Burundi are the last ones.
It is noteworthy that the German-speaking and Nordic countries on the top of this
ranking have excelled in social welfare and environmental technology, but have
some of the highest incidents of suicides per capita and some of the largest