Happiness and constitutionalism

Abstract

Happiness has been linked to justice since ancient times, particularly since the beginning of Greek Classical Thought. However, nowadays the importance of happiness can surprisingly be found again in political speech, which makes us think about it, and obviously it is worth doing. Happiness could be considered as a main principle of the Social State. This idea obliges us to look carefully into happiness in our Constitutions. It is thought that only in a democratic society, where social rights have been developed, can citizens get a dignified life, so that they are able to look for happiness. Without a dignified life, happiness is something impossible to achieve. Consequently, happiness is said to be not only an individual objective, but also a common and public target. The State should offer citizens the proper conditions for the pursuit of happiness. In the Spanish Constitution, we get the impression that it is possible to find happiness from some aspects of it. So, according to this, the eudemonism theory could be reasserted in our modern Social State. Currently, we can notice that public policies are concerned with the happiness of citizens in order to improve their daily lives, and actually governments are working on it in many countries. In any case, this fact might be considered as a return to the essence of human being. A good chance to try to understand what is a person.