In the past few decades, due to the global environmental crisis humanity is facing, a sudden growth in environmental policies and sustainability strategies has been registered. This article discusses two of such policies, namely that of Gross National Happiness (GNH) in the Himalayan country of Bhutan and the inclusion of the concept of Buen Vivir (BV) in the Bolivian Constitution, through a critical analysis—based on political ecology approaches—of their implementation within state policy and their wider implications within the global discourse on the so-called “sustainable development” paradox. This paper highlights the role that the aforementioned policies might play in the path to decolonization, seeing as how they draw inspiration from their own local contexts and values instead of those provided by the Global North, more specifically focusing on their ancestral and traditional knowledge to supposedly guide the countries’ policy-making process. Although several points of criticism are identified in both policies, innovativeness is detected in their potential to offer alternative views on human wellbeing, both for global southern and global northern contexts, as their original intent would be to remarkably operate outside of the Western framework of development based on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and economic growth. GNH appears to be mostly oriented toward supporting political national budget discussion and allocation, while BV acts at a higher level (constitutional), thus also inspiring overall politics.

1. Harari YN. Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. Random House; 2016.
2. Kothari A, Salleh A, Escobar A, et al. Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary. Tulika Books and Authorsupfront; 2019.
3. Ahmed Y. Political discourse analysis: a decolonial approach. Critical Discourse Studies. 2020, 18(1): 139-155. doi: 10.1080/17405904.2020.1755707
4. Bifulco L, Borghi V. Public sociology, a perspective on the move. In: Bifulco L, Borghi V (editors). Research Handbook on Public Sociology. Edward Elgar Publishing; 2023. pp. 2–18. doi: 10.4337/9781800377387.00007
5. Tarocco F. The Buddhist Economies of Modern Urban China. Hualin International Journal of Buddhist Studies. 2019, 2(2): 250-272. doi: 10.15239/hijbs.02.02.09
6. Paulson S, Gezon LL, Watts M. Locating the Political in Political Ecology: An Introduction. Human Organization. 2003, 62(3): 205-217. doi: 10.17730/humo.62.3.e5xcjnd6y8v09n6b
7. Robbins P. Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction. John Wiley & Sons; 2019.
8. Worldometer. Countries in the world by population. Available online: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country/ (accessed on 2 December 2023).
9. Lepeley MT. Bhutan’s gross national happiness: An approach to human centred sustainable development. South Asian Journal of Human Resources Management. 2017, 4(2): 174-184. doi: 10.1177/23220937177316
10. Solarz MW, Wojtaszczyk M. Are the LDCs really the world’s least developed countries? Third World Quarterly. 2016, 38(4): 805-821. doi: 10.1080/01436597.2016.1241138
11. Verma R. Gross National Happiness: meaning, measure and degrowth in a living development alternative. Journal of Political Ecology. 2017, 24(1). doi: 10.2458/v24i1.20885
12. TED. This country isn’t just carbon neutral—it’s carbon negative. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lc_dlVrg5M&t=471s&ab_channel=TED (accessed on 2 December 2023).
13. Tideman SG. Gross National Happiness: lessons for sustainability leadership. South Asian Journal of Global Business Research. 2016, 5(2): 190-213. doi: 10.1108/sajgbr-12-2014-0096
14. Bates W. Gross national happiness. Asian-Pacific Economic Literature. 2009, 23(2): 1-16. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8411.2009.01235.x
15. Daga G. Towards a new development paradigm: Critical analysis of gross national happiness. Available online: https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/33743091/Critical_Analysis_of_Gross_National_Happiness_Index_-libre.pdf?1400563868=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DTowards_a_New_Development_Paradigm_Criti.pdf&Expires=1708570034&Signature=CTJhsRmh~4xRUOQVP1DfbtmOecxCaYSAgT9PMQQXkJfRuucksm~w5XWtm-WAWb2NgbOkf~hfom8z5HAs5Afsc45saTfQ2~2FG2RbzrICEvpEjxDYC-L~R3E4umgLjJcL509~8ZASow0uJgEJEGV2NnNaiSM3ZvaagwKj~VjrDTzZK0kzsncHcViOb3k9uR58dN10VTjwL1JOaXxJLAI~vDFrYoRuASv0y0ixgvlMrLOU2sRtUUmoKRbBZdORpg46WuH667gqwylzAsuE55ZAUJDLT2KtrLD9iXkedcUhYM-2yCKDnEElB7obQAXpdWA~114zv-NYCfMj1i4eBI5HMA__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA (accessed on 22 February 2024).
16. Ranta EM. Toward a Decolonial Alternative to Development? The Emergence and Shortcomings of Vivir Bienas State Policy in Bolivia in the Era of Globalization. Globalizations. 2016, 13(4): 425-439. doi: 10.1080/14747731.2016.1141596
17. Jimenez A, Delgado D, Merino R, et al. A Decolonial Approach to Innovation? Building Paths Towards Buen Vivir. The Journal of Development Studies. 2022, 58(9): 1633-1650. doi: 10.1080/00220388.2022.2043281
18. Chassagne N. Sustaining the ‘Good Life’: Buen Vivir as an alternative to sustainable development. Community Development Journal. 2018, 54(3): 482-500. doi: 10.1093/cdj/bsx062
19. Gudynas E. Buen Vivir: Today’s tomorrow. Development. 2011, 54(4): 441-447. doi: 10.1057/dev.2011.86
20. Acosta A. Living Well: ideas for reinventing the future. Third World Quarterly. 2017, 38(12): 2600-2616. doi: 10.1080/01436597.2017.1375379
21. van Norren DE. The Sustainable Development Goals viewed through Gross National Happiness, Ubuntu, and Buen Vivir. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics. 2020, 20(3): 431-458. doi: 10.1007/s10784-020-09487-3.
22. Ura K, Alkire S, Zangmo T, et al. A Short Guide to Gross National Happiness Index. The Centre for Bhutan Studies; 2012. doi: 10.35648/20.500.12413/11781/ii025
23. Ura K, Alkire S, Zangmo T, et al. An Extensive Analysis of GNH Index. Heidelberg University Library; 2013. doi: 10.11588/XAREP.00002733
24. Easterlin RA, O’Connor KJ. The Easterlin paradox. In: Zimmermann KF (editor). Handbook of labor, human resources and population economics. Springer International Publishing; 2022. pp. 1–25. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_184-2
25. Merino R. An alternative to ‘alternative development’? Buen vivir and human development in Andean countries. Oxford Development Studies. 2016, 44(3): 271-286. doi: 10.1080/13600818.2016.1144733
26. Cappelli F, Caravaggio N, Vaquero-Piñeiro C. Buen Vivir and forest conservation in Bolivia: False promises or effective change? Forest Policy and Economics. 2022, 137: 102695. doi: 10.1016/j.forpol.2022.102695
27. Kuhn TS. The structure of scientific revolutions. University of Chicago Press; 1962.
28. Commoner B. The Closing Circle. Nature, Man, and Technology; 1971.
29. Meadows DH. Thinking in systems: A Primer. Chelsea Green Publishing; 2008.
30. Brooks JS. Avoiding the limits to growth: Gross National Happiness in Bhutan as a model for sustainable development. Sustainability. 2013, 5(9): 3640-3664. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8411.2009.01235.x
31. Munslow B, O’Dempsey T. Globalisation and Climate Change in Asia: the urban health impact. Third World Quarterly. 2010, 31(8): 1339–1356. doi: 10.1080/01436597.2010.541082
32. Meadows D, Randers J, Meadows D. Limits to Growth. The 30-Year Update. Earthscan; 2005.
33. Siani E. Buddhism and power. In: Chachavalpongpun P (editor). Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Thailand. Routledge; 2019. pp. 268–277. doi: 10.4324/9781315151328
34. Grugel J, Uhlin A. Renewing Global Governance: demanding rights and justice in the global South. Third World Quarterly. 2012, 33(9): 1703-1718. doi: 10.1080/01436597.2012.721234
35. Kamei M, Wangmo T, Leibowicz BD, et al. Urbanization, carbon neutrality, and Gross National Happiness: Sustainable development pathways for Bhutan. Cities. 2021, 111: 102972. doi: 10.1016/j.cities.2020.102972
36. Lang M. Buen Vivir as a territorial practice. Building a more just and sustainable life through interculturality. Sustainability Science. 2022, 17(4): 1287-1299. doi: 10.1007/s11625-022-01130-1
37. Villalba U. Buen Vivir vs Development: a paradigm shift in the Andes? Third World Quarterly. 2013, 34(8): 1427-1442. doi: 10.1080/01436597.2013.831594
38. Roy P. Economic growth, the UN and the Global South: an unfulfilled promise. Third World Quarterly. 2016, 37(7): 1284-1297. doi: 10.1080/01436597.2016.1154440
39. Gray K, Gills BK. South–South cooperation and the rise of the Global South. Third World Quarterly. 2016, 37(4): 557-574. doi: 10.1080/01436597.2015.1128817
40. Fuhr H. The rise of the Global South and the rise in carbon emissions. Third World Quarterly. 2021, 42(11): 2724-2746. doi: 10.1080/01436597.2021.1954901
41. Douglas H. Science, values, and citizens. In: Adams M, Biener Z, Feest U, Sullivan J (editors). Eppur si muove: Doing History and Philosophy of Science with Peter Machamer. Springer; 2017. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-52768-0_6
42. Flemmer R, Schilling‐Vacaflor A. Unfulfilled promises of the consultation approach: the limits to effective indigenous participation in Bolivia’s and Peru’s extractive industries. Third World Quarterly. 2015, 37(1): 172-188. doi: 10.1080/01436597.2015.1092867
43. The Donella Meadows Project. Systems thinking resources. Available online: https://donellameadows.org/systems-thinking-resources/ (accessed on 2 December 2023).
44. Keeble BR. The Brundtland report: ‘Our common future.’ Medicine and War. 1988, 4(1): 17-25. doi: 10.1080/07488008808408783