20 May, 2008:  It has become fashionable in recent years for think tanks and policy wonks to regard democracy as on the decline globally. “There has been an increasing amount of talking and thinking that democracy is in trouble and it’s been a bad decade for democracy,” says Dr. Thomas Carothers, who oversees the Democracy and Rule of Law Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC.

He notes that there is abundant evidence supporting this view if one looks for it. First of all, there has been stagnation in the third wave of democratization with few new democracies emerging recently in the international community. Secondly, there has been a rise in the acknowledgement of authoritarian regimes as an alternative to democracy—especially in the cases of countries such as Russia and China. Even more troubling is the creation of what Dr. Carothers refers to as an “informal league of non-democracies”—this has been fueled by the fact that leaders, who have little in common other than their non-democratic government, are increasingly meeting and working together. A third factor often pointed to in order to prove the decline of democracy is that America—ostensibly the global beacon and disseminator of democracy throughout the world—has damaged its reputation, and smeared the name of democracy, through actions taken as part of the war on terror which have threatened civil rights and liberties. If the U.S. is supposed to be leading by example, many think this alone is a sign that democracy may be in trouble.

Dr. Carothers is quick to point out, however, that there are positive signs indicating that democracy may not be on its way out. There are encouraging examples of democracy taking root all over the world if one chooses to look for them, he urges. Carothers is also skeptical of what’s driving the interest in this “trend.” For instance, given the Bush administration’s tendency to make the spread of democracy abroad a central component of its foreign policy, many who politically oppose the administration also tend to be pessimistic about the state of democracy in the world. “People who work at think tanks wake up in the morning hoping to find a trend,” Dr. Carothers says, highlighting the fact that policymakers and researchers can often overstate trends and relationships.

But how do ordinary citizens around the world feel about democracy? This is the question that is trying to be answered by WorldPublicOpinion.org (WPO), a project managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland. One of their most recent studies, entitled World Public Opinion on Governance and Democracy, is part of a project undertaken to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Enshrined in that document is the principle that “the will of the people should be the basis for the authority of government,” and WPO seeks to reveal whether or not people all over the world believe in this principle.

In order to accomplish this, WPO worked with 19 countries to conduct surveys which represent almost 60 percent of the world’s population. These countries comprise a broad range of geographical regions and vary in terms of political regime. In all, there were 17,525 respondents who answered a variety of questions regarding attitudes toward democracy and governance. The polls were conducted between January 10 and March 20 of this year and were administered by research centers within each country, under the supervision of PIPA. All polls were done over the phone and internet (an internet connection was provided to those who lacked it).

What the massive survey revealed was that there is overwhelming global support for democracy, in principle. When presented with the principle regarding the will of the people determining the government, 85 percent of all people polled agree—with 52 percent strongly agreeing. Additionally, 84 percent of those surveyed believed that free and open elections are the best way to choose leaders and 82 percent believed that having a free media is important.  

While this shows strong support for the principles underlying democracy, the report also reveals substantial dissatisfaction amongst respondents’ with the democratic responsiveness of their government. A full 74 percent of those surveyed indicated that the will of the people should have more influence over their government’s decisions than it does now. 80 percent of respondents globally think that politicians should pay more attention to domestic public opinion polls while 57 percent believe that their government should take international public opinion under more consideration. The countries involved were ranked in terms of how developed their democracy is—from “full democracy” to “authoritarian regime”—and in a surprising result, it turned out there was an inverse relationship between a country’s democratic rating and the respondents’ trust in government.

“This is one of more sobering findings of the study,” says Dr. Steven Kull, director of WolrdPublicOpion.org. “What this suggests is that the objective facets of democracy, such as elections, are not enough to engender trust or satisfaction within a population towards the government. Instead, we have to look at the more subjective facets such as the responsiveness of the government to the will of the people.”

Clearly, while many people throughout the world overwhelmingly agree with the foundational principles upon which democracy is built, many are also displeased with the way they are (not) being applied in a practical sense. All in all, these findings suggest that it may take a more complex, nuanced, and individualized look at the world to assess the true present state of democracy.