Democracy

Americans and Western Europeans largely agree about what is important for democracy, but they put greater emphasis on these principles than Central and Eastern Europeans.

Read key takeaways from a new survey that explores European attitudes three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Thirty years ago, a wave of optimism swept across Europe as walls and regimes fell, and long-oppressed publics embraced open societies, open markets and a more united Europe. Three decades later, a new Pew Research Center survey finds that few people in the former Eastern Bloc regret the monumental changes of 1989-1991.

Across 27 nations surveyed by Pew Research Center in 2018, people were more dissatisfied than satisfied with the way democracy is working in their country. This held especially true in a dozen countries where negative views of democracy outpaced positive by more than 10 percentage points.

As of the end of 2017, 57% of 167 countries with populations of at least 500,000 were democracies of some kind, and only 13% were autocracies.

Many South Africans are dissatisfied with the state of their democracy. Confidence in some civic institutions declined from 1990 to 2013.

Dissatisfaction with democracy is correlated with views on economic conditions, whether key democratic norms are being respected and other issues.

Across 27 countries, more people are unhappy with the state of democracy in their countries than satisfied. Discontent with democracy is tied to concerns about the economy, individual rights and out-of-touch elites.

Many Indonesians are satisfied with the state of their democracy, and more describe the country’s current and future economic situation as good.