his article conducts a global-scale analysis of the relationship between multiple variables: economic conditions, happiness, life satisfac-tion, and perceptions of democracy on one hand; and the economic and political performance of governments on the other. The study presents evidence that components of economic well-be-ing and subjective well-being do not necessarily evolve in tandem or the same direction; rather, they exhibit complex and occasionally contra-dictory interrelations. The statistical analysis developed in this research demonstrates that the quality of democratic institutions positively influences individuals’ objective well-being, as measured by the Human Development Index (hdi). In other words, in cross-country compar-isons, democracy as a political system emerges
Yedwab et al. (2025) studied this question.