Europe Asia News

For the new poll, Ipsos asked questions between 12 and 29 September to more than 9,800 voters in the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Croatia, the Netherlands and Poland. Pollsters found that, across all nine countries surveyed, an average of 45 percent of respondents were unhappy with the way democracy functions.

According to the poll, with the exception of Sweden – where people believe democratic politics works well – a clear majority in the other countries are worried about risks to their systems of self-government over the next five years.

The survey comes amid growing concern that democracy is under threat in the West. A recently published report for the G20 finds that global wealth inequality increases support for extremist parties, undermines public debate and lays the groundwork for authoritarianism.

This week, the European Commission announced plans to strengthen democracy in the EU’s 27 member states. However, critics say the proposal to address foreign interference in European elections is far too weak and relies on voluntary participation across the bloc.

Voters who describe themselves as belonging to the political extremes – on both the far left and the far right – were the group most likely to say that democracy is failing.

In France and the Netherlands, satisfaction levels fell last year due to political turmoil. The French government has repeatedly come close to collapse amid an ongoing crisis over the national budget, while the Dutch coalition broke apart earlier this year, triggering elections in October.

In none of the nine countries did a majority of voters believe that their national governments represent their views well.

Ipsos found that, to protect democracy, respondents support introducing laws and sanctions in particular to combat corruption, safeguarding the independence of the courts, providing better civic education in schools and regulating fake news and hate speech on social media.