Analyzing Subjective Well-being and Development in Iran

< p >In recent years the notion of development has expanded to include besides the economic dimension variety of other dimensions, one of which is subjective well-being. This paper attempts to find and analyze Iran’s ranking among other countries in subjective well-being based on Gallop findings. The findings show that in subjective well-being Iran is in crisis, while its ranking in other indicators of development based on Gallop’s and World Bank’s findings is better. To understand this gap between the subjective and objective well-being measured by other indicators of development, including GDP per capita, Gini coefficient, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and freedom from corruption, three analyses has been suggested: historical-cultural, political discourse and media sphere. In conclusion, for overcoming the crisis of subjective well-being in Iran the cultural policies should be revised, the political discourse must change to a moderate and more sympathetic discourse with free space for healthy competitions, and the monopoly of the state in radio and television should be removed to give different groups of the Iranian elites the opportunity to work in line with national interests to convince the public of the realities of the status quo.