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DOI :10.26650/SJ.2019.39.1.0022   IUP :10.26650/SJ.2019.39.1.0022    Full Text (PDF)

Subjective Well-Being in European Welfare Regimes and Turkey

Ümmügülsüm Aysan

The aim of this study is to analyze the subjective well-being levels of Europeans and Turkish citizens within the context of welfare-regime typology using the European Quality of Life Survey’s (EQLS) 2012 data. Subjective well-being, which consists of cognitive factors such as life satisfaction and affective factors such as happiness, is affected by individual factors such as personality, gender, age, income, and marital status, as well as macro factors such as macroeconomic indicators, political institutions, and quality of society. Welfare-state types and the quality of social policies are also related to subjective well-being. This study demonstrates that the subjective well-being levels in institutionalized welfare regimes are higher through high levels of social expenditures and developed social services. Furthermore, differences between the lowest and highest income quartiles for subjective well-being are lowest in social-democratic welfare regimes.

Keywords: Subjective well-being, Happiness, Life satisfaction, Welfare state, Inequality
DOI :10.26650/SJ.2019.39.1.0022   IUP :10.26650/SJ.2019.39.1.0022    Full Text (PDF)

Avrupa Refah Rejimleri ve Türkiye’de Öznel İyi Oluş

Ümmügülsüm Aysan

Bu çalışmanın temel amacı Avrupa Yaşam Kalitesi araştırması (2012) verilerine dayanarak, Avrupa ve Türkiye’deki öznel iyi oluş seviyelerinin, refah rejimi tartışmaları bağlamında mukayeseli analizini ortaya koymaktır. Öznel iyi oluş yaşam memnuniyeti ve mutluluk gibi bilişsel ve duygusal bileşenlerden oluşan çok boyutlu bir kavramdır. Kişilik yapısı, cinsiyet, yaş, gelir, medeni durum gibi bireysel özellikler yanında ülkenin ekonomik durumu, toplumsal yapı ve politik yapı gibi makro faktörlerden de etkilenir. Dolayısıyla bireylerin ve toplumların yaşam kalitesine etki eden refah devletinin ve sosyal politikaların nitelikleri de öznel iyi oluş seviyelerine tesir etmektedir. Analiz sonuçları sosyal politika uygulamalarının kurumsallaştığı gelişmiş refah rejimlerinde öznel iyi oluş seviyelerinin az gelişmiş refah rejimlerine göre daha yüksek olduğunu göstermektedir. Mutluluk ve yaşam memnuniyeti Sosyal Demokrat ülkelerde en yüksek iken, Güney Avrupa ve Post sosyalist refah rejimlerinde en düşük seviyelerdedir.

Keywords: Öznel iyi oluş, Mutluluk, Yaşam memnuniyeti, Refah devleti, Eşitsizlik

EXTENDED ABSTRACT


People have questioned the qualities of a good life since ancient times. Researchers of subjective well-being are interested in how humans feel about and judge the quality of their lives, notwithstanding others’ opinions. Numerous causes are found, including health, marital status, job status, and income, for the variations of subjective wellbeing at the individual level. Furthermore, the populations of different countries have revealed marked differences in subjective well-being. A country’s prevalent economic situation is the first plausible reason. Individuals in affluent societies are expected to be happier than people in economically poor countries. However, subjective wellbeing differences also are present among rich Western societies. Researchers have claimed that social democratic welfare states are able to produce more happiness for their citizens (Radcliff, 2001; Rothstein, 2010). Furthermore, differences in subjective well-being among various social groups such as the lowest and highest income groups are lower in these countries. This study will compare the subjective well-being levels of the welfare regimes in Europe and Turkey using 2012 data from the European Quality of Life Survey.

Subjective Well-Being Subjective well-being is a field that studies the perceived quality of life. In other words, it is the psychology of quality of life, it refers to individuals’ evaluations of their lives, and encompasses both cognitive judgments of satisfaction and affective appraisals of mood and emotion (Diener et al., 1999). The field of subjective well-being has three characteristics. First, it is subjective and about individual experiences. Secondly, it requires both the absence of negative factors and presence of positive factors such as happiness. Last but not least, emphasis is usually placed on the global assessment of all aspects of an individual’s life, not on specific domains like income satisfaction (Diener, 1984). Two main approaches exist for measuring subjective well-being. While the hedonic approach defines well-being in terms of pleasure attainment and pain avoidance with a focus on happiness, the eudaimonic approach targets meaning and self-realization, defining well-being with respect to the degree to which an individual fully functions (Ryan & Deci, 2001). Adopting a broader perspective in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Wellbeing (2013), subjective well-being is maintained to encompass three elements: life evaluation, affect, and eudaimonia. Life evaluation is deliberate appraisal of a person’s life, usually measured by life satisfaction. Affect is about both positive (happiness and joy) and negative (anger and fear) feelings and emotions while eudaimonia is related to meaningfulness and purpose in life (OECD, 2013).

Numerous causes exist for the variations in subjective well-being at the individual level. Empirical research has indicated that being married, having children, feeling free and healthy, and participating in religious activities increase individuals’ subjective well-being. Mental and physical health problems, personal sorrows, longterm unemployment, and bereavements make people unhappy. Aside from individual factors, many macro factors are found to affect the level of subjective well-being. Economists are interested in the relationships among macroeconomic indicators such as gross national product inflation, unemployment, inequality, and happiness. Various studies have demonstrated people living in rich countries to be happier than those living in poor countries (Frey & Stutzer, 2010). Culture may be a good reason as to why people in the culturally similar countries of Latin America have high subjective well-being, whereas the subjective well-being of those in post-socialist countries is lower than their earnings would forecast. Welfare regimes differ in how they create and distribute well-being. Tremendous literature exists on the classification of welfare regimes. In his seminal book The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (1990), Esping-Andersen classified 18 OECD countries up to the 1980s according to their social stratifications and levels of decommodification. Decommodification is “the degree to which individuals, or families, can uphold a socially acceptable standard of living independently of market participation” (Esping-Andersen, 1990, p. 37). Three distinct welfare regimes are found in his classification: the Liberal (Anglo-Saxon or English Speaking), the Conservative (Continental European or Corporatist), and the Social Democratic (Scandinavian) regimes. In liberal welfare regimes, market plays a crucial role while social expenditures are very limited compared to other welfare regimes. Rights and benefits are distributed through means-testing, and welfare recipients are generally stigmatized. In conservative welfare regimes, rights and benefits are distributed according to occupational status, and benefits increase as contributions increase. Conservative welfare regimes maintain and reinforce the existing social classes. The social democratic welfare regime is also defined as the universalistic welfare regime and has a broad range of social services and benefits covering the entire population. Benefits are delivered on the basis of uniform rules of eligibility (Rothstein, 2010). Later, Southern European welfare states and post-socialist welfare states were added to this classification (Aidukaite, 2009; Özdemir, 2007). Although numerous studies exist on welfare regimes, most scholars are interested in the indicators of objective quality of life. Only a handful of studies are found to focus on how people genuinely assess their lives through indicators of subjective well-being. Radcliff (2001) found a strong positive relationship between welfare state and life satisfaction. He claimed life satisfaction increase to the extent that states decrease market reliance and adopt social democratic welfare regimes. On the other hand, contrary to his expectations Veenhoven (2000) found no connection between welfare state and happiness.

 Data and Method This paper uses the European Foundation’s (Eurofound) European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS; 2012) and its data. The questionnaire contains many questions about both the objective and subjective aspects of quality of life. The EQLS records many aspects of the quality of life in Europe and involves social, financial, and environmental determinants, alongside European societies’ well-being and life quality. This survey is the third wave of quality-of-life surveys started in 2003. Eurofound has created a consolidated methodological approach and quality-assurance system through these cross-national studies, not only for the European Union but also for other nations in the region. This survey covers over 40,000 people from 28 EU member countries and six candidate countries (Iceland, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey), a total of 34 countries.

Results Welch-ANOVA tests have been conducted to check whether statistically significant variations of subjective well-being exist among the means of different welfare regimes. Analysis has shown significant mean differences to exist among the welfare regimes for both life satisfaction (F = 249.526, p < .000) and happiness (F = 154.422, p < .000). The Games-Howell post-hoc tests have been conducted to confirm where the differences occur among the groups. Life satisfaction has no statistically significant differences between the liberal (M = 7.30) and the corporatist (M = 7.25) regimes, which respectively rank second and third after the social democratic regime (M = 7.94). No statistically significant difference exists between the post socialist regime (M = 6.62) and Turkey (M = 6.61), both of which come after Southern European welfare regimes (M = 7.02). Social democratic welfare regimes also have the best scores (M = 7.89) for happiness. The Games-Howell post-hoc tests show the differences among all groups to be statistically significant. The mean values are as follows: MLiberal = 7.89, MConservative = 7.43, MSouthern European = 7.28, MPost-Socialist = 7.05, and MTurkey = 6.87.

Furthermore, the distribution of happiness is mostly even in these countries. The difference in life satisfaction between the first and fourth income quartiles (i.e., the difference between the 25% with the highest income and the 25% with the lowest income) is lowest in social democratic welfare regimes (0.71). This difference is highest in post-socialist countries (1.48) and liberal countries (1.37).

Conclusion This study has analyzed the variations in subjective well-being across welfare regimes, with particular focus on life satisfaction and happiness, using the individual data obtained from the third wave of the EQLS. The results provide evidence that the citizens of social democratic welfare regimes have reported the highest happiness and life satisfaction scores. These regimes also compensate best for income differences in subjective well-being compared to other welfare-state regimes. In light of the aforementioned variations across welfare regimes, social policies can be concluded to affect subjective well-being.


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APA

Aysan, Ü. (2019). Subjective Well-Being in European Welfare Regimes and Turkey. İstanbul University Journal of Sociology, 39(1), 191-214. https://doi.org/10.26650/SJ.2019.39.1.0022


AMA

Aysan Ü. Subjective Well-Being in European Welfare Regimes and Turkey. İstanbul University Journal of Sociology. 2019;39(1):191-214. https://doi.org/10.26650/SJ.2019.39.1.0022


ABNT

Aysan, Ü. Subjective Well-Being in European Welfare Regimes and Turkey. İstanbul University Journal of Sociology, [Publisher Location], v. 39, n. 1, p. 191-214, 2019.


Chicago: Author-Date Style

Aysan, Ümmügülsüm,. 2019. “Subjective Well-Being in European Welfare Regimes and Turkey.” İstanbul University Journal of Sociology 39, no. 1: 191-214. https://doi.org/10.26650/SJ.2019.39.1.0022


Chicago: Humanities Style

Aysan, Ümmügülsüm,. “Subjective Well-Being in European Welfare Regimes and Turkey.” İstanbul University Journal of Sociology 39, no. 1 (May. 2024): 191-214. https://doi.org/10.26650/SJ.2019.39.1.0022


Harvard: Australian Style

Aysan, Ü 2019, 'Subjective Well-Being in European Welfare Regimes and Turkey', İstanbul University Journal of Sociology, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 191-214, viewed 17 May. 2024, https://doi.org/10.26650/SJ.2019.39.1.0022


Harvard: Author-Date Style

Aysan, Ü. (2019) ‘Subjective Well-Being in European Welfare Regimes and Turkey’, İstanbul University Journal of Sociology, 39(1), pp. 191-214. https://doi.org/10.26650/SJ.2019.39.1.0022 (17 May. 2024).


MLA

Aysan, Ümmügülsüm,. “Subjective Well-Being in European Welfare Regimes and Turkey.” İstanbul University Journal of Sociology, vol. 39, no. 1, 2019, pp. 191-214. [Database Container], https://doi.org/10.26650/SJ.2019.39.1.0022


Vancouver

Aysan Ü. Subjective Well-Being in European Welfare Regimes and Turkey. İstanbul University Journal of Sociology [Internet]. 17 May. 2024 [cited 17 May. 2024];39(1):191-214. Available from: https://doi.org/10.26650/SJ.2019.39.1.0022 doi: 10.26650/SJ.2019.39.1.0022


ISNAD

Aysan, Ümmügülsüm. “Subjective Well-Being in European Welfare Regimes and Turkey”. İstanbul University Journal of Sociology 39/1 (May. 2024): 191-214. https://doi.org/10.26650/SJ.2019.39.1.0022



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Submitted16.05.2017
Last Revision21.02.2018
Accepted17.05.2018

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