Abstract
Well-being happens, or doesn’t happen, in a social-political setting. This chapter identifies the main principles and priorities of political settings of well-being in Europe. After a discussion of the dominant political theories found in this region, the central principles of the European Union Constitutional Treaty and Convention on Human Rights are identified. Next, an examination of a selection of country constitutions, along with “Beyond GDP” national well-being initiatives, demonstrates the core values of political conceptions of the good across Northern, Southern, Western and Central-Eastern Europe. Finally, evidence from the World Values Survey reveals the mass priorities of a selection of countries across these different regions. The features of European political conceptions of the good can be described as broadly liberal, with a particular emphasis on the social conditions of well-being.
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Notes
- 1.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=LEGISSUM:xy0023&from=EN (accessed May 2019).
- 2.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/treaty/teu_2012/art_2/oj (accessed February 2019).
- 3.
Constitution of Slovenia (1991, rev. 2016). https://constituteproject.org/constitution/Slovenia_2016.pdf?lang=en (accessed December 2018)
- 4.
Constitution of Poland (1997, rev. 2009). https://constituteproject.org/constitution/Poland_2009.pdf?lang=en (accessed December 2018).
- 5.
Constitution of Estonia (1992, rev. 2015). https://constituteproject.org/constitution/Estonia_2015.pdf?lang=en (accessed December 2018).
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Austin, A. (2020). Well-being in Europe. In: A Universal Declaration of Human Well-being. Wellbeing in Politics and Policy. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27107-7_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27107-7_4
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