Democracy remains popular across the world, but faced with a global array of challenges from inequality to the climate crisis, young people are far less likely than their elders to believe it can deliver on what concerns them.
According to a major international survey of 30 countries published on Tuesday, 86% of respondents would prefer to live in a democratic state and only 20% believe authoritarian regimes are more capable of delivering “what citizens want”.
However, only 57% of respondents aged 18 to 35 felt democracy was preferable to any other form of government, against 71% of those over 56, and 42% of younger people said they were supportive of military rule, against just 20% of older respondents.
I wish I could say I was surprised. Here in Finland we had a parliamentary election earlier in the year and ended up with the most right-wing government we’ve ever had, with zero leftist or centrist parties in the government. One fresh minister had to quit his post due to being a neo-Nazi, and the extremist party whose ministerial post it currently is replaced him with a pedophile neo-Nazi (who won a vote of confidence, so apparently that’s not a problem to anybody but leftists.)
Almost half of the under-25’s voted for right-wing parties. The most popular one was an extremist right-wing party (multiple neo-Nazis, politicians who openly fantasize about eg. murdering gay people, the works), and 2nd most popular was the “fiscally conservative” party (who really aren’t much better than the extremists, and in many ways actually worse).
I guess the reasoning varies based on regions.
I assume that in countries in Asia, Africa, or South America, people are wary of the term ‘democracy’ because:
I could see why disgruntled people, who see corrupt politicians or exploitative rich people go on scot free, wanted a government that could punish them. But of course anger leads to lack of clarity in making decision, thus they ended up preferring authoritarianism that will eventually backfire and target their own citizens.
I don’t know how European / North American youngsters feel, but somehow I have a nagging feeling that ISIS has casted a widespread fear that bolstered people’s support of right wing parties.
Check out the poll, it’s linked in the article. You might be surprised; here’s the percentages for “IMPORTANCE OF LIVING IN A DEMOCRACY Percentage of respondents per country who say it is important to them to live in a country that is democratically governed”