Are you ruled by ‘the will of the people’? – A majority of nations in Western Europe & America say ‘no’, 50% in USA, 57% in Germany & 53% in Italy: Gallup Survey

ISLAMABAD, March 20 (SABAH): Are you ruled by “the will of the people”? – A majority of nations in Western Europe and America say ‘NO’, 50% in USA, 57% in Germany and 53% in Italy.

The Gallup International Association has released the key findings from its 8th Global Health of Democracy Report. The Report is based on a statistically representative survey of around 44,000 respondents in 43 countries across the globe. This is the 8th in a series of polls conducted by the Gallup International; initiated at the turn of the millennium in the year 2000.

The global sample for the latest Report covers 43 representative nations from all continents which comprise 66% of the world population, 75% of its Gross National Income and more than 80% of the world’s manufacturing, research and development expenditure and international trade.

The Gallup International Report on Health of Democracy deals with two aspects of democracy, substantive and procedural. Substantive democracy is measured by seeking public opinion on whether citizens in a country consider their government to be subject to “rule by the will of the people”.

Procedural democracy is measured by seeking public opinion on whether governments in their country are “elected through free and fair elections”.

The findings of the survey are provided country wise as well as grouped into key regions of the world. The regional grouping allows for distinguishing between the group of countries in Western Europe and North America, known to be early adopters of liberal democracy, and other nations of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe which embraced democracy in the second half of the 20th century.

Skepticism about substantive democracy among its early adopters in Western Europe and North America.

Except for the four Scandinavian nations of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland, most of the populations of Western Europe, UK and USA believe they are not ruled by the will of the people. The only exception outside Scandinavia is Switzerland. The average per capita Gross National Income (GNI) of the 18 countries listed below, representing the new first world, is measured to be around 51000 USD, at purchasing power parity (PPP).

Notwithstanding their skepticism about substantive democracy most of these nations retain their trust in their procedural democracy.