Which democracies are satisfied with their political systems?
- Dissatisfaction with democracy has risen over the last quarter of a century.
- ‘Islands of contentment’ – notably the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland – do remain though.
- Four factors explain these broad trends: polarisation, paralysis, perfidy (or scandal), and powerlessness.
Global dissatisfaction with democracy has increased over the past 25 years, according to our recent report.
Drawing upon the HUMAN Surveys project, the report covered 154 countries, with 77 countries covered continuously for the period from 1995 to 2020. These samples were possible thanks to the combination of data from over 25 sources, 3,500 national surveys, and 4 million respondents.