As Democracy Recedes Globally, What’s the Impact on Wellbeing?
By Thierry Malleret, economist
Worldwide, democracy is receding to its lowest levels since the mid-70s, with many countries “autocratizing” at the same time. According to The Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute at Sweden’s Gothenburg University, a record 41% (3.4 billion) of the world’s population currently live in countries where democracy is deteriorating.
Should this be of concern for wellness? Yes, because the type of government under which we live correlates significantly with our personalities, which in turn predicts our wellbeing. The point is made in a recent article in Nature based on an interesting methodology. It asserts that “citizens in democratic countries have more benevolent traits, fewer malevolent traits, and greater wellbeing”, highlighting the associations between governments and personality traits and how democratic practices might influence the wellbeing of citizens.
In short, citizens in democratic countries are measurably kinder, more trusting and less callous. The most interesting wellbeing finding in the whole report? The kindlier you are, the happier you become.
The authors of the article point out that there is no proven causation between the nature of the political regime and our personal wellbeing, and that, similarly, living in autocracy does not make someone malevolent and living in democracy does not make someone benevolent. But their research offers an insightful finding: benevolent traits are the strongest predictor of subjective individual wellbeing, outpacing even democracy scores. This means that being kind augments our wellbeing even more than living in a democratic country, even though the two most often come together.
