Reshaping the Public Policy: Well-being as a Driver to the Development Narrative

Background

Encouraged by the concurrent expansion of free-market economics in government policies, the dominant mantra for living a successful and prosperous life has become equated with consumerism. As opposed to such narratives, it is the associations with our families, companions and social networks, along with our well-being, that make a difference to individuals and our feeling of thriving. A significant misalignment between the objectives of our economic model and what is important to individuals is by all accounts influencing everything (Black et al., 2015).

Society is swayed by individuals’ aspirations. As per an old saying ‘keeping up with the Joneses’, there is a strong motivation to maintain a material lifestyle comparable to those around us. A vicious cycle of aspirations-induced consumption, peer-pressure issues (heightened by inequality) combined with ambitions leading to working beyond one’s capacity, have eventually prompted psychological and physical fatigue and stress (Roach et al., 2019). There is a saying that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’; however, the surge in consumerism juxtaposed with the societal pressure has also been rephrased this saying into ‘invention is the mother of necessity’. Any product or service can be psycho-induced into the society to make it indispensable and an addiction. The socio-economic structures are deeply interrelated with the pattern of economic growth and consumerism (Carlson, 1999). This highlights a need for a paradigm shift in the assessment of the progress of society, from GDP basis to its wellbeing and happiness, employing a well-crafted public policy.

The time has come to understand whether it is the sole counting of the dollars that define how much a country is prosperous, happy, satisfied, healthy, contended and its citizens are leading a life devoid of any stress. There is a strong need to focus on a shift in the purpose of public policymaking, away from GDP growth, by having an understanding of the socio-economic structures vis-à-vis the narratives of progress, growth and (invidious) materialistic consumption.

Socio-economic Context

From the time of Paul Samuelson, emphasising welfare economics (Suzumura, 2005) to Simon Kuznets and Richard Stone devising the concept of GNP and GDP (Comim, 2001), the world has witnessed events such as the World Wars, decolonisation, poverty and the Industrial Revolution, and therefore a valid priority for the policymakers has been to achieve a surge in economic development.

Subsequently, due to the surge in economic progress and materialistic development, the socio-economic structures of our societies got aligned with the intent and direction of economic growth. Economic growth has been severely dependent on the consumption level of the masses and vice versa (Fernandez, 2017), and the boost to economic development has found favour with every stakeholder, be it the government, politics, corporate or lending agencies (Blinder, 1974). However, this concept has a flip side also, as explained by the Easterlin Paradox which says that happiness doesn’t rise with income beyond a point (Easterlin et al., 2010).

Countries have found it inconvenient to devise a matrix of judging the development and growth beyond the periphery of numerical economics (Van den Bergh, 2022), and therefore the decision-makers have not tried factoring well-being in their public policy formulation, as they do not find it easily quantifiable (Alexandrova, 2017). However, various efforts have been done in this direction of finding an alternative to Gross Domestic product (GDP) ranging from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Human Development Index (HDI), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness (GNH), Stiglitz’s report and David Cameroon’s well-being survey to the very recent Jacinda Arden’s well-being budget, but there is still a long way to see if this turns into a reality and get a universal acceptance.

The ongoing ‘great acceleration’ has been unprecedented in bringing in global socio-economic and environmental changes and has led human civilisation to be currently profoundly unsustainable (Görg et al., 2020). Many believe that full decoupling of economic growth and resource consumption may not be practically feasible (Hennicke et al., 2014); however, concepts such as doughnut economics, post-growth and degrowth have been thought of as alternatives (Raworth et al., 2019). The moot point here is that the State cannot absolve itself of its role in allowing the narrative of growth and development to be established as well as being obtuse to the adverse ramifications of focussing on GDP alone.

The Moot Points

It would be extremely important to understand the role of public policy in the narrative of growth and consumerism, with subjective wellbeing as the frame of reference. Worldwide, the legitimacy of governments cannot be separated from their ability to deliver economic growth. Therefore, it is predominantly the role of public policy to see that the balance gets shifted towards a justifiable narrative of social wellbeing where economic growth and development are one of the important factors and not the sole ones. We must also evaluate the changes in the socio-economic structures and the historical and contextual reasons for their link with economic growth, development and consumption. We can also find out and articulate socio-economic indicators which can help construct a context more conducive to allowing families to align their underlying understandings of what is well-being. In fact, the government can move towards an innovative ‘evidence - based public policy’ concept or tool that can be used to screen any new government policy to find out its compatibility with wellbeing and sustainability and eventually lead to a paradigm shift in the narrative of growth and development.

The Indian Context

In India, wellbeing is still synonymous with good health only and anything in this direction would be taken care of in the form of a good health policy. The system of governance in India is so compartmentalised that any convergence or intersection between various subsets of administrative units and themes is a difficult area for bureaucrats and politicians. We have seen that India has had a great jump in its purchasing power per capita as well as standards of living since the advent of Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation (LPG) policy in 1991. The capacity to acquire vis-à-vis the availability of resources has seen a dramatic improvement over the last three decades. However, it is not just the economic satisfaction that quenches the thirst of the human mind. The socio-economic structures in India are highly influential in deciding the well-being of an individual. With the enormous level of socio-economic disparity as well as diversity existing in India, it would not be convenient to conclude that the citizens are yet ready to evaluate themselves on the scale of wellbeing. People are still entangled with their worries related to good health, affordable and quality education, the absence of egalitarianism, jobs, social dynamics and the future social security of their children (Kulkarni et al., 2021). If you ask them to rate themselves on the scale of wellbeing, they would care for the aforesaid worries only and nothing beyond, and it is difficult for them to comprehend what well-being is. However, the silent manifestation of credit-oriented prosperity has started displaying in the form of social discord, stress, anxiety, crime, erosion of civility, denouncing cultural values and last but not least the loss of self-esteem. The discourse of provisioning has been overtaken by that of the ‘paradox of choices and problem of plenty’. The public policy is also therefore focussed entirely to ensure abundant provisioning of varied services and would not care for the sustainability or any adverse consequences of the developmental policies. The concept of development in a growing economy like India needs to be deconstructed, and a customised economic development outlook is required to be nurtured in the public policy arena so as to move towards a sustainable society with peaceful minds.

Paradigm Shift

This would help construct a context more conducive to allowing families to align their underlying understandings of what matters. This would elevate participation, experience and relationship cultivation, rather than purchasing, as a key goal. The time has come wherein the narrative of growth and development needs amendment and the society needs to look beyond the halo of economic progress and trace back its roots to the substantial traits of well-being, contentment and happiness. We need to break the strong myth of the ever-supremacy of GDP fortress and assure the citizenry about the substantial relevance of wellbeing and prosperity (without denouncing GDP or economic growth). Thereafter, the role of the state/government in influencing the narrative of growth and progress by understanding the holistic assessment of the impact of public policy on the subjective wellbeing of the people, which can be defined by screening a public policy before implementing. This method of public policy screening tool would provide a paradigm shift in the intent and substance of public policymaking and lead to a meaningful and sustainable future.