Democracy has been shaken to its core by the proliferation of right-wing populism and autocratic policy. Pew Research Centre has conducted a survey in this respect to find out which country’s population is the most and least satisfied with the way their current political regime / democracy is working.
Publics around the globe are generally unhappy with the functioning of their nations’ political systems. Across the 36 countries asked the question, a global median of 46% say they are very or somewhat satisfied with the way their democracy is working, compared with 52% who are not too or not at all satisfied.
Levels of satisfaction vary considerably by region and within regions. Overall, people in the Asia-Pacific region are the most happy with their democracies. At least half in five of the six Asian nations where this question was asked express satisfaction.
Only in South Korea is a majority unhappy (69%), but we should note that the survey there was conducted in February and March of this year, amid the corruption scandal that led to the impeachment of then-President Park Geun-hye.
Indians are the most satisfied with the way democracy is working (79%) and the Swedes tie with them (79%), followed by Germany (73%). Canada (70%) and Australia (58%). Americans are divided, with just under half in the U.S. (46%) happy with their democracy and 51% are unhappy.
In Hungary, 44% of respondents said they were happy with how the political system was functioning, whereas 53% were unhappy.
In many countries, partisanship has a significant impact on attitudes about the functioning of democracy. People who identify with the current governing party or parties are significantly more satisfied with their political system than those who either support the opposition or identify with no political party.
This is also quite evident in Hungary where 69% of respondents supporting the ruling Fidesz party said they were satisfied with the way democracy is working in the country vs. a 33% ratio among non-supporters.
The partisan divisions over the functioning of democracy are particularly large in Europe. Of the 10 countries surveyed in the region, six publics exhibit a gap of at least 20 percentage points in democratic satisfaction between those who identify with the governing party or parties and those who do not. The highest readings belong to Sweden (90%), the Netherlands (89%), and Germany (83%).
Attitudes about the functioning of democracy are closely tied to publics’ trust in their national government. People who are satisfied with how democracy works in their country also tend to say they trust the national government to do what is right for the country.
In Hungary, merely 9% said they believe the cabinet does what’s best for the country, vs. 26% in Germany, 24% in the Netherlands, 14% in Poland and 14% in the UK.
As with democratic satisfaction, attitudes about the national government are deeply partisan. In 30 of the 37 countries, people who identify with the governing party express more trust in the government than those who do not identify with the leading party. In 13 countries, the partisan gap is 30 percentage points or more.
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