No 2, 2005

Professors Bruno Frey and Alois Stutzer showed that the more extensive the political participation rights of citizens, the more satisfied they were with their lives. Their research, published in the Economic Journal, used data from 6,000 residents of Switzerland to show that people are happier the greater the local level of democracy. What is more, this increased happiness stems more from actual participation in the democratic process than from the outcome of the process itself.

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