Appeal of democracy slipping across much of world: Survey

Sarah Fortinsky
·2 min read

Strong enthusiasm for democracy has dipped in many countries across the world in the last five years, even as support generally remains high, according to a Pew Research survey released Wednesday.

In a survey of 30,861 people across 24 countries conducted from Feb. 20, 2023, to May 22, 2023, most respondents said representative democracy is a good system of government, with a median of 77 percent across nations saying representative democracy is either somewhat or very good. A median of only 20 percent said it’s bad.

The United States is slightly under the median, with 75 percent rating representative democracy as either somewhat (50 percent) or very good (25 percent), and 23 percent saying it’s bad.

In the 22 countries where trend data is available, those who say representative democracy is a good system of government have not varied much.

The share of respondents, however, who say representative democracy is “very good” has declined significantly in 10 of the 22 countries.

From 2017 to 2023, the percentage of those who feel that way has declined by 13 points in Sweden, 13 points in Kenya, 12 points in Canada, 12 points in the United Kingdom, 11 points in Nigeria, 9 points in Germany, 8 points in India, 8 points in the Netherlands, 8 points in Japan, and 8 points in Italy.

In three countries where trend data is available, those who say representative democracy is “very good” have gone up: in Brazil by 13 points, in Poland by 13 points, and in Mexico by 6 points.

According to Pew, support for direct democracy has seen little change in the last five years. The median who said it’s a good form of governing was 70 percent, similar to the median who said the same about representative democracy.

In most countries, support for “expert rule,” or technocracy, has increased also in the last five years. In 2023, the 24-country median was 58 percent who said it was good. In the U.S., 48 percent said it’s good.

In 19 of the 22 countries with trend data over the last five years, support for technocracy has increased.

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