Economic development represents the entire gamut of change required to widen the distribution of basic life-sustaining goods and services, to raise standards of living and to expand the range of socioeconomic choices available to individuals and nations (Todaro & Smith, 2015, p. [...] To rectify this pitfall, it is useful to pay attention to the separation of the economy as a distinct sphere of social life, which became entrenched in the 1950s to give rise to the growth paradigm (Kallis et al., 2018, p. [...] This is against the background that the role of religion in development has gained significance since the start of the 21st century, as a key to ascertaining alternative and multiple views of ‘progress’ (Bompani, 2019). [...] For the public, the promotion of Buddhist values of happiness in the country’s development plans is nothing novel or revolutionary, although it was visionary for the Fourth King (rein: 1972–2006) to have initiated the process of translating the country’s rich tradition of Mahayana Buddhism into a formal national policy (Karma Phuntsho, 2013, p. [...] GNH began to be applied to Bhutan’s development plans in the 1970s, as the Fourth King started stressing on the need to prioritise happiness in defiance of the propensity of development elsewhere to revolve around the maximisation of GDP, in his public speeches and statements (Centre for Bhutan Studies & GNH Research, 2016, pp.
- Pages
- 34
- Published in
- Bhutan
