Introduction to Happiness in Nations
Abstract chapter 1
QUEST FOR THE GOOD SOCIETY
Utopic dreams about 'The Ideal Society' have led into a search for 'Optimal Societies'.
The present state of Social Science does not allow the deductive identification of optimal
societies, but we can approach the matter inductively. Inductive identification of optimal
societies involves five steps: 1) choice of performance criteria, 2) operationalisation of
these, 3) application to a set of societies, 4) establishment of a performance rank order,
and 5) finding out why some societies perform better than others. This book considers the
usefulness of average happiness as a performance criterion. The focus of this book is on
step 3.