The big and established democracies of the Europe and Americas are fast losing the trust of their population particularly the younger generation while the trust is an all-time high in smaller democracies. Besides, the newer democracies in Asian and African nations have shown faith and increasing trust in democratic institutions.
These conclusions have been presented in a recent report of the Global Satisfaction with Democracy 2020 prepared by the Centre for the Future of Democracy at Bennet Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge (USA). In addition to presenting the current situation of the 'trust in democracy' by the people of that country, the report also presents an insight for the nation-states to improve the strengthening and functioning of their democratic institutions. The research has presented a comparison of the 'satisfaction of democracies in the 1990s' with 2020.
No Longer Democratic
The report has divided the countries into six categories based on 'satisfaction with democracy' – No Data or Never Democratic, No Longer Democratic, Satisfaction less than 20 percent, 20-50 percent, 50 to 60 percent and above 60 percent.
According to the report, the satisfaction level in Russia in the 1990s was less than 20 percent which now falls under the category of 'No Longer Democratic'. The report has also listed Venezuela as 'No Longer Democratic' where the level of contentment was between 20-50 percent in the 1990s. Besides, Turkey has also been listed as a non-democratic country. Interestingly, all these countries have most of the features of democracy such as political parties, elections, separation of powers between the three organs of the political system – Legislature, Judiciary, and Executive. Chian, the biggest competitor of the USA has been put under 'No Data or Never Democratic'.
Pakistan more democratic than the USA
Interestingly, the satisfaction level of democracy in the USA is lower in comparison to Pakistan. With about 47 percent of dissatisfaction, the USA and Japan are in the category of '20 to 50 percent' satisfaction. The level of satisfaction in Pakistan is 50 to 60 percent. However, countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Columbia, Peru, and Ukraine, etc. have been marked as 'crisis' i.e. where democracy is in crisis.
"Across the globe, democracy is in a state of malaise. The share of individuals who are "dissatisfied" with democracy has risen by around +10 percent points, from 47.9 to 57.5 percent. This is the highest level of global dissatisfaction since the start of the series in 1995," said the report. The rise in democratic dissatisfaction has been especially sharp since 2005, concluded the report. The report has also concluded the followings:
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are the personal views of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)
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