Quality of Life and Quality of Persons: A New Role for Government?
Author(s)
Lane, Robert E.
Abstract
A person’s quality of life (QL) is defined by the relation between the external circumstances and the dispositions of that person, between quality of conditions (QC) and quality of person (QP). Favorable conditions, such as relative wealth, are only opportunities from which a person with appropriate qualities can extract a high quality of life. It follows that improving the quality of life implies improving the quality of persons. The relevant qualities of persons are defined more by concept of and research on mental health and personality development than by concept of “capabilities” or “essentialist functionings” or basic needs. In this conceptualization, subjective well-being (“happiness,” etc) is only one of the objectives of efforts to improve the quality of life. Because governmental policies promoting quality of life fail when they ignore qualities of persons, governments should promote human development as part of their promotion of a better quality of life.
