Status: 12.09.2023, 21:08 p.m.
By: Florian Naumann
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Young people in Moscow pose with cardboard displays of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping - according to the survey, there are only a few democracy advocates left in Russia. © IMAGO/Artyom Geodakyan
Do young people no longer believe in democracy? A 30-country survey raises questions - and highlights Turkey, Russia and the USA.
New York/Frankfurt - A recent survey of people in 30 countries around the globe comes to a "sobering and alarming" conclusion: According to it, young people from Generation "Z" and "Millenials" have significantly less confidence in democracy than older people. Only 57 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 35 consider democracy to be the best form of government, according to the survey. 42 percent of them consider military rule to be a good way to govern a country.
This is according to data published on Tuesday (12 September) by the Savanta and (in Ukraine) Gradus institutes on behalf of the Open Society Foundations (OSF). Overall, the representative survey covered countries with a total population of 5.5 billion people. There are alarming results from Germany, of all places. However, the survey also highlights the understanding of democracy and climate crises in countries such as the USA, China, Turkey and Russia.
Survey "alarmed": Young people believe less in democracy - Germans are less likely to rely on human rights
The survey raises questions about the future of democracy around the world. Trust in debate and co-determination is apparently dwindling: 72 percent of all respondents over the age of 56 named democracy as the best form of government - among people under 36 it was a full 15 percentage points less. The authors of the study see one possible reason in the manifold crises of the present.
"Our results are both sobering and alarming," said OSF President Mark Malloch-Brown. "People around the world want to continue believing in democracy. But from generation to generation, this belief is fading as doubts about democracy's ability to concretely improve their lives grow. That has to change."
The survey shows astonishing data on human rights: Only 51 percent of respondents in Germany believed that human rights were "a force for good in the world". That's far less than the 30-country average of 72 percent. In Bangladesh, for example, 88 percent agreed with this thesis, and in war-torn Ukraine it was 66 percent.
Migration: Only in Turkey is the concern even greater than in Germany - but still not a huge issue
The survey also provided a classification at the international level for controversial issues such as migration and global warming. For example, immigration is the most important issue for very few respondents in Germany: 18 percent of respondents classified this question as the most pressing problem. Nevertheless, this figure is the second highest among all 30 countries. Only in Turkey was it even higher, at 25 percent. Many people from the civil war country of Syria arrive there - many of them are denied the onward journey to the EU.
According to the figures of the pollsters in Germany, a leading role for wealthy countries in the containment of greenhouse gases was advocated by a right-wing large number of people - but still a small one compared to other countries: Exactly 50 percent saw rich countries as having a duty. However, this was also the lowest value of all 30 countries. Especially in poorer countries, the numbers were, unsurprisingly, significantly higher.
In countries such as Bangladesh and Nigeria, the figure was well over 80 percent. But France (77 percent), Japan (70 percent), the USA (65 percent) and even Russia (64 percent) also came up with higher approval rates for this thesis. At the same time, 69 percent of respondents in Germany expressed concern about the negative impact of the climate crisis on their lives as early as next year.
Erdogan's Turkey believes in democracy - in Putin's Russia it has little support
Another interesting figure: The proportion of strict democracy advocates was highest in Turkey
among the 30 countries considered. 79 percent of those surveyed considered democracy to be superior to all other forms of government - as recently as May, Recep Tayyip Erdogan won the presidential elections there, partly amid allegations of electoral fraud. The rate is lowest in Vladimir Putin's Russia, where only 35 percent of the survey participants considered democracy to be superior.
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With 60 percent, Germany ranked in the middle of the pack - on a par with France and two percentage points behind the largely authoritarian China. After all, the support for a possible military government in the Federal Republic was very low: 14 percent meant 29th place among the 30 countries. Only Japan undercut this figure.
Survey: Concern about unrest also in the USA and Germany - 45 percent hope for China's influence
Around the world, however, there is strong concern about political unrest and violence as early as next year. In Kenya and South Africa, 79 percent expressed similar fears. But in Germany, too, the proportion of those concerned in this regard was 55 percent. In the U.S., the figure was 67 percent just over a year before the presidential election. In Russia, on the other hand - in view of the Ukraine war as well as military mobilization and subsequent upheavals in some severely affected regions - an astonishing 30 percent.
At least the survey brought a small positive message for the West - despite concerns about challenges from autocratic countries or Russia's propaganda efforts: 29 percent of respondents in all 30 countries saw their values best embodied by the United States. They were followed by Great Britain and France. The two allies, China and Russia, received 15 and 12 percent support respectively for their "values".
However, respondents in Asia, Africa and South America in particular expected China to have the world's greatest influence as early as 2030. 45 percent also believed that this influence will have a positive effect. In Ukraine, on the other hand, 64 percent of respondents expected the US to play this role - possibly also a sign of hope and fear in the Ukraine war.
"Open Society Barometer"
The two institutes Savanta and Gradus Research surveyed 18,21 people in 36 countries from May 344 to July 30 - each in representative samples of at least 1,000 people. It was, according to the Open Society Foundations, "one of the largest public opinion polls ever conducted on human rights and democracy in 30 countries." The foundation was founded in 1993 by the US investor George Soros and later endowed with billions in funds.