Abstract
This chapter synthesizes the main themes from Bhutan’s experience implementing four policies using the Gross National Happiness (GNH) governance framework. It further explores the broader insights from Bhutan’s experience for governance and human development. It argues that the fractured and contested nature of governance in the policy implementation process should undermine the achievement of GNH outcomes. Nonetheless, socially constructed cultural values often shape the governance process in a manner that successfully achieves GNH outcomes. At the same time, these values themselves are subject to change. This chapter concludes by drawing out two broader insights for governance and human development related to the complex nature of power and the potential role of cultural values in shaping complex power.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Acemiglior, D., & Robinson, J. (2012). Why nations fail: The origins of power, prosperity, and poverty. New York: Crown Business.
Brandsen, T., & Kim, S. (2010). Contextualizing the meaning of public management reforms: A comparison of Netherlands and South Korea. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 76(2), 367–386.
Brinkerhoff, D., & Brinkerhoff, J. (2015). Public sector management reform in developing countries: Perspectives beyond NPM orthodoxy. Public Administration and Development, 35, 222–237.
Diamond, J. (1997). Guns, germs, and steel: The fates of human societies. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Easterly, W. (2006). The white man’s burden: Why the West’s efforts to aid the rest have done so much ill and so little good. New York: Penguin.
GNH Commission. (2016). Twelfth five year Plan guideline. GNH Commission. http://www.gnhc.gov.bt/12th-fyp-preparation/. Accessed Apr 2 2017.
GNH Commission/UNDP. (2011). Bhutan national human development report 2011. Thimphu: GNH Commission.
Grindle, M. (2007). Good enough governance revisited. Development Policy Review, 25(5), 553–574.
Lichbach, M. I. (2009). Thinking and working in the midst of things: Discovery, explanation, and evidence in comparative politics. In M. Lichbach & A. Zuvkerman (Eds.), Comparative politics: Rationality, culture, and structure (pp. 18–71). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Peters, B. G., & Pierre, J. (2016). Comparative governance: Rediscovering the functional dimension of governing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ross, M. H. (2009). Culture in comparative political analysis. In M. Lichbach & A. Zuvkerman (Eds.), Comparative politics: Rationality, culture, and structure (pp. 134–161). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sachs, J. (2005). The end of poverty: Economic possibilities for our time. New York: Penguin.
Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. New York: Knopf Press.
Sen, A. (2007). Violence and identity: The illusion of destiny. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
Smoke, P. (2015). Managing public sector decentralization in developing countries: Moving beyond conventional recipes. Public Administration and Development, 35, 250–262.
Ugyel, L. (2016). Paradigms and public sector reform: Public administration of Bhutan. Palgrave Macmillan.
Ura, K. (2015). The experience of gross national happiness as development framework. (ADB South Asia Working Paper Series No. 42). Manilla: Asian Development Bank.
Wedeen, L. (2002). Conceptualizing culture: Possibilities for political science. American Political Science Review, 96(40), 713–728.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Schroeder, K. (2018). Conclusion. In: Politics of Gross National Happiness. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65388-4_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65388-4_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-65387-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-65388-4
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)