Democracies – How Do People Feel About Them?
Democracy is the idea that all people should have an equal say in how their government runs, with the right to vote and to hold elected representatives accountable for their decisions. It also includes the notion that people should have freedom of speech and assembly to discuss ideas with others, form interest groups or protest against decisions they disagree with. Democracy is one of the most important political principles in the world and has inspired some of history’s most profound expressions of human will and intellect, from Pericles in ancient Athens to Vaclav Havel in modern Czechoslovakia.
Democracy has many advantages, but it also has disadvantages. It takes time for new policies to be implemented, and it can sometimes produce political turmoil. In addition, there is a risk that democracies might be less resilient to economic crises and global threats such as climate change. These challenges are putting pressure on the health of democracy worldwide and have fuelled popular anger at established elites and rising support for anti-establishment leaders, parties and movements on both the left and right. Organisations from Freedom House to the Economist Intelligence Unit have documented a decline in democratic health across the globe in recent years.
It is possible to measure what democracy looks like, and there are a number of different indicators that are used. These range from simple, aggregated measures such as percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot to more sophisticated multidimensional surveys that attempt to capture the full complexity of democracy. However, a great deal of work remains to be done in the field of democracy measurement. There are ongoing challenges at both the conceptual and measurement levels, and it is difficult to come up with consistent, meaningful measurements that are also feasible to implement in practice.
In our own survey research, we have repeatedly found that people feel dissatisfied with their democracy and want major changes to the way their country is run. We asked respondents in countries around the world open-ended questions about what they thought would improve their democracy. Across most countries, the top answer was that they wanted better or different politicians.
We find that some of the main drivers of democratic dissatisfaction are related to the idea that people’s interests and views are not being heard by those in power, and that decisions are made without sufficient consideration of the opinions and needs of citizens. Other factors relate to the perception that the economy is not creating good jobs and that people cannot improve their lives, or that democracy is not responsive enough to the people’s concerns.
All of these issues are linked to the idea that democracy is based on a balance or compromise between different forces in society, rather than a pure, clean sweep of tradition and belief systems. As long as these fundamental conflicts remain, democracy is unlikely to thrive. For these reasons, it is vital that governments make every effort to address the tensions between modernization and preservation of cultural identity and traditional ways of life.
Democracy is the idea that all people should have an equal say in how their government runs, with the right to vote and to hold elected representatives accountable for their decisions. It also includes the notion that people should have freedom of speech and assembly to discuss ideas with others, form interest groups or protest against decisions they disagree with. Democracy is one of the most important political principles in the world and has inspired some of history’s most profound expressions of human will and intellect, from Pericles in ancient Athens to Vaclav Havel in modern Czechoslovakia. Democracy has many advantages, but it also has disadvantages. It takes time for new policies to be implemented, and it can sometimes produce political turmoil. In addition, there is a risk that democracies might be less resilient to economic crises and global threats such as climate change. These challenges are putting pressure on the health of democracy worldwide and have fuelled popular anger at established elites and rising support for anti-establishment leaders, parties and movements on both the left and right. Organisations from Freedom House to the Economist Intelligence Unit have documented a decline in democratic health across the globe in recent years. It is possible to measure what democracy looks like, and there are a number of different indicators that are used. These range from simple, aggregated measures such as percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot to more sophisticated multidimensional surveys that attempt to capture the full complexity of democracy. However, a great deal of work remains to be done in the field of democracy measurement. There are ongoing challenges at both the conceptual and measurement levels, and it is difficult to come up with consistent, meaningful measurements that are also feasible to implement in practice. In our own survey research, we have repeatedly found that people feel dissatisfied with their democracy and want major changes to the way their country is run. We asked respondents in countries around the world open-ended questions about what they thought would improve their democracy. Across most countries, the top answer was that they wanted better or different politicians. We find that some of the main drivers of democratic dissatisfaction are related to the idea that people’s interests and views are not being heard by those in power, and that decisions are made without sufficient consideration of the opinions and needs of citizens. Other factors relate to the perception that the economy is not creating good jobs and that people cannot improve their lives, or that democracy is not responsive enough to the people’s concerns. All of these issues are linked to the idea that democracy is based on a balance or compromise between different forces in society, rather than a pure, clean sweep of tradition and belief systems. As long as these fundamental conflicts remain, democracy is unlikely to thrive. For these reasons, it is vital that governments make every effort to address the tensions between modernization and preservation of cultural identity and traditional ways of life.