Representative democracy remains the preferred system of governance around the world, but on the eve of elections in many parts of the world, a survey of 24 democracies by the Pew Research Center released Wednesday found that Its charm is fading.
The median rating of 77% across the 24 countries surveyed was that representative democracy was a “good” system of government, higher than any other system of government, but a median of 59% told pollsters that their country's They said they were dissatisfied with the way democracy works. In the 22 countries for which data are available since 2017, the last time Pew asked about democracy, the proportion describing democracy as a “very good” system has declined in half of the countries.
“People like representative democracy. But we're seeing in many ways that people are really dissatisfied with its performance here,” said Richard, managing director of Pew's Global Attitudes research. Mr Wike said. “There is a real disconnect between people and their representatives.”
Across 24 countries (all democracies), a median of 74% said they did not believe their elected officials cared about the opinions of people like them. Of the 24 national leaders surveyed, only 10 received favorable reviews from more than half of the people.
But the alternative was seen as even worse. Only six opposition leaders received favorable ratings, and a median of 42% of respondents said their country had no political party representing their views. Those in the political center were more likely to report that they did not feel that their political parties represented their views.
The poll comes as the world's democracies prepare for a huge year in which more than 50 countries, representing half the world's population, will hold elections. This includes elections in India this spring, elections across the European Union in June, and the US presidential election in November.
The vote came amid increasing support for a more authoritarian form of government. The Pew study found that support for “strong leaders” who can make decisions without court or legislative intervention has increased in eight of the countries surveyed since 2017.
These countries include Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Kenya and Argentina, and the country's presidential election in November, after the Pew research was completed, will see a self-proclaimed “anarchist” party called “lunatic” by supporters. “Capitalist” Javier Millay won. Around the beginning of last year. Overall, just under a third of the countries surveyed generally supported some kind of authoritarian regime.
Support for strong leaders also rose in India, with India standing out as the country with the highest support for that form of government, with 67% of those surveyed rating it a good system, and This is an increase of 12% since the time of the survey. 2017 Questions.
India's popular Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been criticized by Hindu nationalist parties for eroding the country's democratic and secular traditions. But the country's residents also report high levels of satisfaction with democracy in opinion polls, and Wike said the two factors are intertwined in India.
“These authoritarian models have more support there,” Wike said. “This gives authorities a basis from which they can obtain public support.”
The poll found Mexico saw the biggest increase in support for strong leaders, up 23% since 2017. At the same time, Mexico was one of three countries where support for democracy increased, the other two being Brazil and Poland.
Support for more authoritarian leadership tended to be strongest among people with lower levels of education and income, as well as those on the ideological right. In poor countries, support for authoritarian regimes, including military regimes, was higher. The military's takeover of government also received support from about a third of all residents in eight of what Pew called more “middle-income” countries, including Mexico, India, Indonesia and South Africa. But overall, military rule is the least popular form of government, with a median approval rating of just 15%.
The United States is an outlier in several categories, including support for more authoritarian institutions.
The country is the wealthiest country surveyed, and support for the dictatorship was well below the majority level, with only 15% supporting the military and 26% supporting strong leadership. However, it was still higher than the other half of the countries surveyed.
This comes as former President Donald Trump, the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, has continued to make mild remarks about authoritarian leaders such as China's Xi Jinping, North Korea's Kim Jong Un, and Russia's Vladimir Putin. This was in response to the incident.
Wike said the United States is also marked by polarization over the question of whether more diverse representation would improve the country's policies. She said the median for the countries surveyed was 50%, and she believes policies would improve if more women were elected, but in the U.S., that number was just 42%.
Across the countries surveyed, a median of 46% believed that electing more young people to public office would improve policy, while in the United States, at 38%, this was the second lowest after Japan. The United States also has the widest ideological gap on this issue, with seven in 10 liberals saying younger leaders would improve the situation, while only two in 10 conservatives agreed.
While representative democracy is the most popular system, direct democracy, in which people vote themselves on key issues, is a close second, with a median of 70% saying it is a good way to run the country. The Pew survey also found that support for a system run by experts rather than elected officials is increasing, with a median of 58% supporting that model.
Pew surveyed 30,861 people in 24 countries from February to May 2023. The margin of error varied by country.
