It is essential that the new democracies of post-communist Central and Eastern Europe enjoy the full support of their citizenry. Among social scientists there is an ongoing debate about which conditions ensure mass support. Is political output, like individual freedom, or economic output, like...

With EU membership, politicians as well as citizens in the accession countries hope to achieve improvements in living conditions and – at least in the long run – to catch up with the West European societies. Catch-up modernization of the less advanced member states is also an ”official”...

As Europe is growing together politically and economically, the international perspective is becoming more and more important in social reporting and welfare research. Are there strong differences in the objective living conditions and the subjective well-being between European nations? Do the...

Across the globe there is growing skepticism about the usefulness of GDP as a measure of national well-being. Consequently, several alternative quality-of-life (QOL) measures were developed which either aim at healing the GDP, complementing it, or replacing it. This chapter portrays some of...