Geo-Economics and Politics

These developed countries are increasingly unhappy with democracy

politics democracy democratic protest capitol hill us congress white house senate Washington d.c Virginia capitalism socialism fairness economics government govern administration system power voting votes elections electing faith trust electorate legislature house of commons house of lords congress senate house of representative prime minister government cabinet president executive legislative democrats republicans labour conservatives left wing right win us Australia united states new Zealand Switzerland EU European union Norway Finland Sweden united kingdom uk

The US is one of the countries experiencing high levels of dissatisfaction in democracy. Image: Unsplash/Vlad Tchompalov

Darren Thackeray
Senior Writer, Forum Agenda
Share:
Our Impact
What's the World Economic Forum doing to accelerate action on Geo-Economics and Politics?
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Corruption is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
Stay up to date:

Regional Organisations

  • Dissatisfaction with democracy is at its highest since records began.
  • United States and Brazil show the highest levels of dissatisfaction.
  • Small, high-income nations eg. Luxembourg, Denmark have lowest levels.
  • Dissatisfaction often linked to economic shocks and scandals.

Dissatisfaction with democracy in developed nations is at a record high.

Have you read?

Since 1995, the University of Cambridge’s Centre for the Future of Democracy has gauged people’s views on democracy. Their most recent report, spanning 154 nations, reveals some of the highest levels of discontent since records began.

"We find that dissatisfaction with democracy has risen over time and is reaching an all-time global high, in particular in developed countries,” said the report’s author, Dr Roberto Foa.

Global democratic malaise

In the mid-nineties, countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia seemed to be relatively satisfied with their democracies. Since then, the proportion of people expressing dissatisfaction has risen from 47.9% to 57.5%.

Loading...

Some of the world’s largest democratic countries, such as the United States and Brazil, are experiencing the highest levels of dissatisfaction, with Mexico, Australia and the United Kingdom seeing their highest level of dissatisfaction on record. Japan, Greece and Spain are also inching closer to all-time highs.

‘Islands of contentment’

However, not all hope is lost. People in some countries – primarily small, high-income democracies like Denmark, Switzerland and Norway – are showing great confidence in their democratic institutions.

These countries form part of the so-called “Island of Contentment” – a small subset of nations, accounting for just 2% of the world’s population, where less than a quarter of the citizenry express dissatisfaction with democracy.

Shock and awe

While the report demonstrates a marked increase in dissatisfaction, it doesn’t conclude why. However, 25 years of data does point to a correlation between levels of dissatisfaction and large-scale events such as economic shocks and political scandals.

politics democracy democratic protest capitol hill us congress white house senate Washington d.c Virginia capitalism socialism fairness economics government govern administration system power voting votes elections electing faith trust electorate legislature house of commons house of lords congress senate house of representative prime minister government cabinet president executive legislative democrats republicans labour conservatives left wing right win us Australia united states new Zealand Switzerland EU European union Norway Finland Sweden united kingdom uk
Rising dissatisfaction in democracies representing 2.43 billion individuals. Image: Global Satisfaction With Democracy 2020

Events leading up to the current all-time high include the start of the refugee crisis in Europe, Brexit and the election of Donald Trump in the United States and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil.

The future of democracy?

Voters falling out of love with democracy was one of the talking points at this year’s World Economic Forum Annual Meeting.

In the Davos session Democratic Capitalism: Dead End or Shared Destiny? participants discussed the way forward for capitalist democracies.

Loading...
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Related topics:
Geo-Economics and PoliticsFinancial and Monetary Systems
Share:
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

How political leadership transitions could shape Southeast Asia's future

Vijay Eswaran

September 30, 2024

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum