flaneuse - "What about non-voting forms of active engagement, like letter-writing, or vigils, peace marches, etc.?"

All good ways to engage too, I don't think one negates the other...do you? All the people I know who are socially engaged in terms of letter-writing, vigils and peace marches also vote. After all, if one is going to be engaged on that level it's kind of silly *not* to vote unless one is making a protest by not voting in some visible way. Even then, voting for a joke party is still more effective at sending a message that you think politicians are clowns! Those I know who don't vote, tend not to do any of these things either because they don't think it will make a difference. All these things are essentially engaging with the democratic process :-) This is just my experience and observations, yours may be quite different and I respect that.

I'm always amazed though by how many truly intelligent, open, politically progressive, well educated and upper-middle class people I meet from the states who don't bother voting! There does seem to be a direct link between affluence and lack of voter interest - in Australia they had to make it illegal and fine people if they didn't vote back in the 70s because people's lives were generally good and they didn't see much benefit from voting. People tend to come out and vote more when things are going badly for them, when they want a change. Or so it seems to me anyway!

"voting is an act of optimism in some ways."

This rings true for me. And I doubt it has a whole lot to do with outcome.....

Altho, since "Geography of Bliss" looks at happiness studies compiled from all over the world... it is important to note that places like Sweden, where folks vote 7 times a year, could definitely skew the results. It's a small country tho.... right? So the skew wouldn't be THAT large.

Interestingly..... Scandinavian countries in general tend to score high on happiness scales. Which kinda begs the question of SADD that Americans are so fond of blaming for their sadness.

And, altho most Scandinavian countries are wealthy.... "Geography of Bliss" does not fine wealth (beyond basic needs) to be correlated with happiness.

This whole subject really intrigues me.....

Amma

Aha, I knew there must be a confounding variable. Like living in a well-run society!