CUM SE MĂSOARĂ PROGRESUL SOCIAL?
HOW TO MEASURE SOCIAL PROGRESS?

Summary/Abstract: (Abstract) The paper examines the existing concepts and indicators used for assessing social progress. It starts from the nexus between progress and economic growth, and focuses first on per capita GDP at PPP, using the database built up by Angus Maddison, but then shifts towards alternative approaches such as the Better Life Index, the World Happiness Index, the Social Progress Index, and the Human Development Index, with its special development into Leandro Prados de la Escosura’s Historical Human Development Index. It also summarizes the findings of Steven Pinker’s analysis on the impact of Enlightenment on human developments since the late 18th century, and on those of Maria Bucur’s ‘Century of Women’, connecting them with Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach, and concludes that by all measures global social progress was increasingly significant during the last century.

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