More Choice for Better Choosers: Political Freedom, Autonomy, and Happiness
| Author | Dario Maimone Ansaldo Patti,Sebastiano Bavetta,Pietro Navarra,Peter Miller |
| Published date | 01 June 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032321716650223 |
| Date | 01 June 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
650223PSX0010.1177/0032321716650223Political StudiesBavetta et al.
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Political Studies
2017, Vol. 65(2) 316 –338
More Choice for Better
© The Author(s) 2016
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Autonomy, and Happiness
Sebastiano Bavetta1, Dario Maimone
Ansaldo Patti2, Peter Miller3 and
Pietro Navarra2
Abstract
A substantial literature finds that freedom in the sense of an expanded opportunity set is positively
related to happiness. A contrasting literature, however, finds that an excess of choice can have
socially undesirable outcomes. We test the effect of two types of freedom—autonomy and
political—on happiness using five waves of World Values Survey data (1981–2008). We find
evidence supporting the claim that equipping people with the tools to direct the course of their lives
(i.e. increasing autonomy freedom) incentivizes the desire to investigate alternatives (e.g. political
parties) before making a decision. The effect of freedoms on happiness is diminished in contexts
where individuals have less experience with evaluating alternatives, such as in authoritarian or
transitional countries.
Keywords
World Values Survey, comparative public opinion, political freedom, personal autonomy,
happiness
Accepted: 4 April 2016
The pursuit of happiness is a difficult exercise for which, luckily, there is no shortage of
suggestions. Psychology, economics, and political science can be righteously enlisted in
the thick directory of contributors to a never-ending catalog of recommendations, surely
with substantial credibility and hopefully with a strong clout. This article adds to the list
by suggesting that a major determinant of happiness is freedom (Haller and Hadler, 2004;
Inglehart et al., 2008; Veenhoven, 2000). To offer original insights, we disentangle the
1Department of Economic Sciences, Università di Palermo, Palermo, Italy
2Department of Economics, Università di Messina, Messina, Italy
3Philosophy, Politics and Economics Program, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Corresponding author:
Peter Miller, Philosophy, Politics and Economics Program, University of Pennsylvania, 375 Claudia Cohen
Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Email: peterm@sas.upenn.edu
Bavetta et al.
317
contribution that two different types of freedom—political and autonomy—give to the
search for happiness and express a reasoned view on the relationship between choice and
happiness.
The expansion of emancipative values and the vast increase in choice accorded by the
tailor-made nature of contemporary capitalism have shifted the focus on the determinants
of happiness toward the role of choice (Bavetta et al., 2014; Frey and Stutzer, 2002;
Welzel, 2013). The possibility for someone to choose for herself, whether in the market
for goods and services or in the political arena where the vote can be expressed for differ-
ent parties, candidates, and platforms, contributes to happiness because it fosters self-
realization. People want choice because they want to be in the position to forge their life
according to their values, preferences, and beliefs. And people gain satisfaction (or hap-
piness) when their life accords with who they want to be.
At the same time, choice is a useful way to frame freedom in theory as well as empiri-
cally. To the extent that we have choice, we also enjoy the possibility to be free. Framing
freedom in terms of choice is beneficial for our ability to measure it (Bavetta and Guala,
2003; Sen, 1988; Sudgen, 1998). While the debate on the quantitative dimension of indi-
vidual freedom is justly concerned with understanding what we mean by “extent of
choice,” it is much less preoccupied by the connection between freedom and happiness,
which it takes for granted—at least in the social sciences.
Of course, there are dissenting voices, doubtful of the straight relation between choice
and happiness that we describe (Iyengar, 2010; Schwartz, 2004). To choose is surely help-
ful to the fulfillment of self-realization. However, if choice is too vast, it burdens deci-
sion-makers with anxieties, transaction costs, and regrets that depress the degree of
happiness that they may otherwise experience. Cognitive shortcuts can be used to reduce
the demands for information in order to reach a satisfactory decision, but there are limits
to the utility of these heuristics as well (Herstein, 1981; Thaler and Sunstein, 2008).
A recent literature (Bavetta and Navarra, 2012; Verme, 2009) suggests that the extent
of choice is important for the degree of autonomy freedom (AF) that people experience.
In this literature, a person is autonomous if she is accountable for her choices. Autonomy,
therefore, implies responsibility in decision-making as well as a perception of being in
control of life outcomes. This interpretation is tied to the Millian notion of individuality,
whereby the development of autonomous behavior is fostered by choice (Mill, 1991
[1859]). Having alternative courses of action to choose from lends meaning to the delib-
erative process and makes it an opportunity for the development of individuality and for
self-realization.
The relation between this view of freedom and happiness has received scant attention
in the literature, so far. Such a relation is the main concern of this article. We use a hier-
archical linear model that incorporates individual-level variables within countries with
varying degrees of political freedom (PF) to examine the effects of PF and AF on happi-
ness drawn from five waves of World Values Survey (WVS) data. We find empirical
evidence that AF has favorable effects on the degree of happiness people experience. We
also explore the combined effect of autonomy and PF on the level of happiness and find
evidence that they reinforce each other in producing happiness.
Our findings suggest that autonomous individuals exposed to a vast array of choices—
PF is firmly established—are more “efficient” in handling their deliberative process since
they are more equipped to evaluate and compare the different available options. We
empirically show that the enjoyment of their autonomy significantly amplifies the level
of happiness that such individuals achieve from choosing in highly complex
318
Political Studies 65 (2)
decision-making. Autonomous persons, therefore, are better choosers, especially when
they have to discern among many alternatives.
Interestingly, these findings break into the Schwartz and Iyengar debate on the effect
of enlarging choice on people’s happiness. In particular, this article offers evidence that
more choice does not thwart happiness because the former’s effect on the increase in AF
outweighs the negative consequences of a burdensome deliberative process, even in
countries with poor records in PF. One way to reconcile this result is offered by Sheena
Iyengar’s distinction between choice as principle and choice as value (Iyengar, 2010).
The value of choice is affected by the extent of choice, whereas the role of choice as a
fundamental principle is not. In the political realm, people perceive choice as an unalien-
able part of their political endowment, which produces happiness no matter how taxing
its consequences are.
Happiness, Choice, and Political Institutions
We situate our study of happiness and freedom at the intersection of three literatures.
First, with regard to the explanatory power of AF, we contribute timely empirical results
to ongoing research into the factors associated with happiness. Second, we draw on eco-
nomic and political discussions of choice and connect to a vast literature that gives evi-
dence of the importance of PF for the experience of happiness. Third, we engage with
other determinants of happiness, connected with personal characteristics such as income,
personal and demographic features, or health.
Remarkably, despite the vastness of the literature on the determinants of happiness, not
much has been said about the role of AF on the production of happiness and even less
about the effect of the joint operation of autonomy and PF. This is relevant information
that scholars and policymakers neglect at their own peril. The former are not able to
explain different levels of happiness in the presence of similar levels of political rights
and civil liberties. Ceteris paribus, this article argues that these differences are affected
by people’s level of AF. Policymakers run even bigger risks. A country that scores high on
the level of AF, but imposes restrictions on its citizens in the exercise of PF, amplifies the
perceived degree of unhappiness jeopardizing the stability of its political system. Such
information might have been helpful to Hong Kong’s governmental authorities in pre-
venting the student-led riots that exploded in September 2014. Students were asking for
democratic reforms in a region of China reporting high levels of AF and low levels of PF.
In this article, we focus on the relation between two different concepts of freedom:
political and autonomy. More specifically, we are interested in the complementarity
between these two types of freedom that, we believe, reinforce each other: in the absence
of PF, AF cannot be exercised because there are no options to choose from. PF, therefore,
is a requirement for the exercise of AF because more choice allows...
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