Debates on degrowth have emerged with the realisation that the existing growth-oriented economic order has infringed upon our biosphere’s limits and human wellbeing. This must be rectified in favour of a more sustainable and equitable order through the promotion of green, caring and communal economies, as pointed out by degrowth advocates. However, these advocates argue for abandoning economic growth as a policy objective, thereby missing an opportunity to heed the potential of forging ‘partial connections’ between growth-seeking and degrowth-oriented measures. To explore a remedy against this pitfall, this study examines Bhutan’s policy of Gross National Happiness (GNH), which downplays a growth-for-growth’s sake approach but avoids precluding the pursuit of growth, in line with the historical unfolding of the country’s development plans and its Buddhism-based mores. Although GNH is yet to elicit a structural shift towards a full-fledged post-growth society, its balanced stance aids the search for a clue on how best to promote a post-growth transition with an intricate combination of growth-seeking and degrowth-oriented measures. Despite this potential, GNH has been largely overlooked by degrowth advocates, who depart from their own principle of valuing ‘locally determined paths’.

JEL: B59, 029

随着人们意识到现有的以增长为导向的经济秩序已经侵犯了我们生物圈的极限和人类福祉，关于去增长的辩论已经出现。正如去增长倡导者所指出的那样，必须通过促进绿色、关怀和社区经济来纠正这一点，以支持更可持续和更公平的秩序。然而，这些倡导者主张放弃将经济增长作为政策目标，从而错过了在寻求增长和以去增长为导向的措施之间建立“部分联系”的潜力的机会。为了探索应对这一陷阱的补救措施，本研究考察了不丹的国民幸福总值 (GNH) 政策，该政策淡化了为增长而增长的方法，但避免排除对增长的追求，与该国发展计划的历史发展及其以佛教为基础的习俗相一致。尽管 GNH 尚未引发向成熟的后增长社会的结构性转变，但其平衡的立场有助于寻找线索，以寻求如何最好地通过寻求增长和以去增长为导向的错综复杂的组合来促进后增长转型措施。尽管有这种潜力，但 GNH 在很大程度上被 degrowth 倡导者所忽视，他们背离了自己的价值“本地决定路径”的原则。

JEL：B59, 029