Environmental Welfare: Quality of Policy vs. Society's Values

In the 21st century, in addition to the generally well-known indicators of material well-being, in the modern paradigm of the welfare state, the quality of the ecological environment is gaining an ever-increasing role. In the context of interdisciplinary research, the formation of the ecological consciousness as a way of being is important for today, in which citizens feel a direct connection with the natural environment, trying to preserve it for prosperity people. Studies of the connection between economic and environmental development are often confined to financial-economic interactions, leaving out the attention of the educational and scientific components of the problem. The article is devoted to the study of the ecological component of the social welfare, as well as the analysis of the impact of quantitative and qualitative indicators (governance quality, development of democracy, GDP per capita, value orientations) on the Environmental Performance Index as a comprehensive indicator of environmental welfare assessment. The hypothesis is that along with effectiveness indicators of the state policy (quality of governance, democracy index), the demand for the public good for the environmental quality is determined by the ability to invest in the environment (GDP per person) and the dominance of the self-realization values over the survival values. Using economic and mathematical modeling it is proved that the indicators of governance quality and the level of development of democracy play a key role in shaping the ecological component of well-being, while the level of GDP per person and values is influenced with less intensity. It is substantiated that public policy should be aimed directly at improving governance efficiency and the development of democracy and civil society.