Mahayana Buddhism and Gross National Happiness in Bhutan

In 1972, the fourth King of Bhutan announced that Gross National Happiness was more important than Gross Domestic Product. In this paper, the basic conceptual features of Mahayana Buddhism are discussed particularly as they relate to the Mahayana Buddhist view of happiness. The primary purpose of Mahayana Buddhism is to spread happiness and compassion to everyone in the world. This includes that by awakening to the Ultimate Truth, one obtains greater clarity and insight about the true nature of the universe, leading to internal peace and happiness. As this paper shows, the goal of modern Gross National Happiness is also based on Mahayana Buddhist principles to increase happiness for everyone. This occurs through governmental policies and programs that promote material needs balanced with becoming enlightened

The Paradox of Explosive and Gradual Policy Change in Political Revolutionary Times

Many political revolutionary theorists have argued that political revolutionary activity occurs in a dramatic fashion resulting in explosive change in the orientation of established policy regimes resulting in radically new public policy outputs and governmental organizational structures. This research, quantitatively analyzing political revolutions that culminated in the 20th century, confirms that short-term political revolutionary activity and the establishment of new policy regimes were few in number. Most successful political revolutionary activities along with new policy regimes were long-term while some political revolutions were not successful. The process of political revolutionary activity to overthrow established policy regimes is a complex phenomenon with political and policy change occurring across widely varying time frames

Punctuating “Happiness”: Punctuated equilibrium theory and the agenda-setting of the Gross National Happiness (GNH) policy in Bhutan

Gross National Happiness (GNH), a concept first intro- duced by Bhutan, has gained immense traction as an al- ternate development paradigm to GDP toward achieving wholesome global progress. In this paper, we investigate the origins of the policy of GNH, through the theoreti- cal lens of the punctuated equilibrium theory (PET), and when and how GNH came to the national agenda. By focusing on the year 2008, that is, when Bhutan's Government transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a democratic constitutional monarchy, this paper analy- ses the key events that serve as policy windows and the policy entrepreneurs responsible for agenda-setting the policy of GNH. We argue there is a major change, such as, the government changing its form from monarchy to democracy, it is a definitive benchmark as to what punctuation means. In addition to providing a defini- tive meaning of “punctuation” in public policy, we also identify and discuss the key methodological issues in relation PET and offer explanations through Bhutan's policy of GNH to determine policy punctuation and measuring policy change

Chronicles of Oklahoma

Article depicts how Norman used extralegal means to maintain its status as a "sundown town," a place where African Americans were not welcome after dark, well into the mid-twentieth century

Impact of tobacco industry and other corporations in the defeat of the 1994 Clinton health care plan

Abstract Background: The primary reason cited by many scholars for the defeat of the Clinton Administration’s 1994 health care reform bill has long been identified as Health Insurance Association of America and National Federation of Independent Businesses opposition to the bill. Given this predominant consensus combined with sizeable proposed funding for the bill by a large tobacco product tax, this manuscript examined what the tobacco industry’s role was in whole or part in defeating the Clinton health care bill. Methods: This research occurred through crosschecking internal tobacco industry documents and Clinton White House documents. Results: Prior to the passage of the bill, the tobacco industry accepted a compromise of 45 cents per pack increase phased in over five years. Due to this compromise, the industry or third party allies had no role in the ultimate defeat in the bill. Conclusions: The primary reason for the bill’s ultimate defeat was general business (but not tobacco industry and third party ally) opposition, the bill running out of time, and conflicting bills. Secondary reasons for the bill’s defeat included issues with: employer mandates, high taxes on insurance plans, impacts on medical research and education, Congressional attention to other issues, election year politics, and possible future excise tax possibilities.Ye