The Experience of Gross National Happiness as Development Framework

Abstract

This paper explores GNH as a framework for socio-economic development in Bhutan by elucidating GNH principles that affect the way Bhutanese society and state interact. It dwells more on how Bhutan is actually, in practice, doing - by assessing policy intentions versus policy outcomes and declarations. It concludes that Bhutan’s experiment with GNH remains dynamic and evolving, and suggests that this whole policy process may also be of interest to those in the international community who have been intrigued by the original idea of GNH. It concludes that an outlook on whether GNH offers any realistic alternative towards higher wellbeing and lesser unsustainability in Bhutan.