Democracy’s appeal is slipping as nations across much of the world hold elections, a poll finds

Representative democracy remains a favorite system of governance around the globe, but its appeal is slipping on the eve of elections in much of the world, according to a survey of 24 democratic countries by the Pew Research Center released Wednesday.

While a median of 77% across the 24 surveyed countries said representative democracy was a “good” system of government, higher than any other alternative, a median of 59% told pollsters they were dissatisfied with how democracy was working in their own country. In the 22 countries where data was available from 2017, the last time Pew asked about democracy, the share describing democracy as a “very good” system was down in half of them.

“People do like representative democracy. But you see here in lots of different ways people are really frustrated with how it’s performing,” said Richard Wike, managing director of Pew’s Global Attitudes research. “There’s a real disconnect between people and their representatives.”

Across the 24 countries — all democracies — a median of 74% said they don’t believe elected officials care what people like them think. Only 10 of the 24 national leaders on the survey had favorable ratings from half or more of the public.

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