Les indices de qualité de vie et les politiques publiques: Revue de la littérature et perspectives de recherche. Plusieurs gouvernements et institutions publiques ont développé des indices de qualité de vie, indices statistiques destinés à établir une mesure de la qualité de vie à l'échelon national ou régional. Nous utilisons 14 critères afin de déterminer la validité et l'utilité de tels indices à des fins de politiques publiques. Nous passons en revue 22 des indices les plus utilisés dans les pays les plus divers. Notre conclusion est que beaucoup de ces indices sont efficaces; s'ils sont réalisés avec sérieux, s'ils sont basés sur des séries temporelles et s'ils peuvent être désagrégés au niveau des sous-populations. Cependant beaucoup sont limités selon quatre points de vue: (1) ils varient énormément en ce qui concerne l'amplitude des domaines pris en compte et des définitions données de la qualité de vie; (2) aucun ne distingue les entrées, les flux et les sorties, concepts utilisés en général par les analystes de politiques publiques; (3) on ne voit pas de lien entre les politiques publiques mises en oeuvre et les résultats en termes de qualité de vie; (4) il n'y a pas eu d'études de comparaison d'indices. Nous concluons que ce n'est que potentiellement que ces indices peuvent être utiles pour la détermination des politiques publiques et nous recommandons des recherches afin de les améliorer.

The purpose of this paper is to trace the history of the social indicators or quality-of-life (QOL) research movement up to today, forecast future developments, and pave the way for future growth. Broadly speaking, we tried to review historical antecedents from the point of view of different disciplines, with specialists in each discipline preparing the basic text and co-authors helping to polish the material into a finished product. Briefly, we begin with an overview of the conceptual and philosophical foundations of our field of research. That is followed by a historical overview of the sociological roots of our field. In the third section, the main contributions from the discipline of economics are reviewed. Following that, the fourth section covers a historical overview of the literature on health-related quality of life is provided. Next, the history of QOL research from a marketing perspective is reviewed followed by a history from the perspectives of industrial/organizational psychology and management. Finally, we offer some forecasts for future QOL studies that are intended not only to predict what might happen, but to encourage, stimulate and motivate researchers to undertake new initiatives. Copyright Springer 2006

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Four essential questions for the study of civility involve developing a definition of the term, determining its effects, establishing trends, and predicting the consequences of civility. A framework for studying it includes the actors, their gender, situations and settings, occupational role requirements, the cultural imperatives defining civility, and the processes through which it is learned. Objective measures of civility in the United States show its variability and change. Four items in the 1996 General Social Survey (GSS) are combined to form a scale of civility. Correlates of the scale show that civility does not differ by gender, color, or region. It is weakly associated with income but is significantly associated with education, occupation, and health. Age, education, and health provide a predictive model of civility. Anger, an emotional aspect of interpersonal exchange, reveals reactions characteristic of civil behavior: waiting for anger to pass before responding, trying to forget the incident, not thinking of revenge, not walking away from the situation, and not yelling or hitting. Hypotheses are proposed for further study that involves age, marital status, occupation, health, and emotional control.Study and analysis begin with formulating a framework, developing a system of classification, and measuring the phenomena. Social scientists have focused more upon dysfunctional behaviors than positive, functional ones. While civility has received little attention, a few studies have examined the related concepts of sympathy, altruism, mutual aid, and similar ideas (Kropotkin 1955;Sorokin 1950; Wispe 1958). Norbert Elias (1994) has addressed the evolution of manners and the process by which societies evolve toward civilization. Nonsociologists, such as Carter (1999) and Martin (1999), have excited interest by drawing attention to the variety of behaviors affected by and the social consequences of incivility in human exchange, in democratic deliberation, and in education. The civil rights and feminist movements have mandated equal and fair treatment for all, especially in the workplace. Out of these movements, sanctions for sexual harassment and other violations of human dignity have been established. These changes have expanded the weight of civility in human affairs.I previously have proposed a working definition of civility-consideration of others in interpersonal relationships-and identified possible functions of civility among professions, in the family, and at work (Ferriss 2000). Other studies have pointed to the morality underlying civility, its requirement of

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