of the contention that social democracy in general, and an expansive, universalistic welfare state in particular, contributed to greater levels of life satisfaction across the Western world. He concludes that the principal determinant of quality of life, controlling for economic or cultural conditions which might also play a role, is the degree to which a society protects its citizens against impersonal market forces as measured by the degree of decommodification it provides. This general theme was developed in a series of subsequent papers, which extended these conclusions by using different indicators (such as happiness as well as life satisfaction), employing pooled time series analysis over a larger number of countries and other methodological and theoretical innovations. In his most recent major paper on the subject, Radcliff and colleagues extend this analysis to a comparative study of the American states, showing that life satisfaction is promoted, controlling for other factors, by the state's level of welfare spending, the degree of economic regulation in favor of workers or consumers, and its history of rule by liberal (or Democratic) state governments. Radcliff has also devoted a series of papers to the role that labor organization plays in promoting human happiness. His empirical analyses suggest that two fundamental conclusions: (1) individuals who belong to (or are represented by) labor unions have higher levels of life satisfaction that others of similar income, education, age, gender, marital status, physical health, and other similar factors, and, more importantly (2) that the aggregate level of labor organization—the "density" of organization, meaning the percentage of the work force organized—appears to increase subjective appraisal of life for everyone, whether members of unions or not. These effects, he stresses, are independent of the impact unions might have on life satisfaction through their traditional support for the welfare state. Radcliff's research program has culminated in the publication of his book The Political Economy of Human Happiness: How Voters' Choices Determine the Quality of Life. Cambridge University Press; (2013) Criticism Radcliff's critique of Riker's work on the connections between social choice theory and democratic theory was the subject of an exchange between Riker and himself in the journal Political Research Quarterly. Radcliff's contention that there is a positive connection between the extent of electoral participation (turnout) and the share of the vote received by the Democratic Party in U.S. elections has been criticized, in separate analyses, by political scientists Robert Erikson and Jack