ABSTRACT
The pursuit of happiness is often closely linked to the idea of a constitution by the people and for the people. The basic rules of democratic constitutions, however, come with rather different characteristics. Given the recent erosion of the social consensus on existing rules in some countries, there is a need to better understand how different state institutions affect people’s lives in terms of their individual wellbeing. In our chapter, we consider a conceptual framework that relates state institutions to people’s experience of outcome utility and procedural utility. The latter refers to the idea that people not only value the consequences of the democratic decision-making process but also gain wellbeing from living and acting under this institutionalized process, as, for example, the possibilities to participate among equals can contribute to a positive sense of self. The theoretical considerations are complemented by a review of the empirical literature on how different aspects of state institutions contribute to the self-reported wellbeing of the resident population. The focus is on generally fair and extensive elections and, more specifically, on electoral systems, direct democracy, and federalism. Overall, the evidence suggests that fostering democracy in the twenty-first century deserves high attention in a plan for wellbeing.
