Measuring well-being - Consequences for political stakeholders and parties

An intense debate is currently going on in many countries concerning how societal well-being should be measured. Countries such as the UK, for instance, now gauge subjective well-being through official statistics and are designing broader indicators of national well-being as a basis for public policy. This paper outlines the consequences of such initiatives for political stakeholders. The development of sets of indicators of national well-being are bringing to light six far-reaching developments for political stakeholders: (i) a new culture of accountability can make its way into politics; (ii) political debates are once again being put on a more factual basis; and (iii) evidence-based policy measures can result from the more prominent role of well-being indicators. For political parties in particular, well-being measurement has a number of implications: (iv) they are being given a new opportunity to develop an overarching narrative; (v) what really separates the different parties is becoming more evident; and (vi) the issues of the current debate can counteract widespread disenchantment with politics and inspire people once more to take an interest in the issues about how we want to live together as a society. As an illustration of the abovementioned developments, this paper introduces a set of »social democratic indicators«. By this means, it can be made clearer what the political ideology of social democracy stands for: social mobility, equality, access to quality jobs and a decent level of living. In sum, measurement of well-being will hold both opportunities and challenges for the public policy process.