Support is lowest in France, Spain and Poland, while 21% back authoritarian rule under certain circumstances

Only half of young people in France and Spain believe that democracy is the best form of government, with support even lower among their Polish counterparts, a study has found.

A majority from Europe’s generation Z – 57% – prefer democracy to any other form of government. Rates of support varied significantly, however, reaching just 48% in Poland and only about 51-52% in Spain and France, with Germany highest at 71%.

More than one in five – 21% – would favour authoritarian rule under certain, unspecified circumstances. This was highest in Italy at 24% and lowest in Germany with 15%. In France, Spain and Poland the figure was 23%.

Nearly one in 10 across the nations said they did not care whether their government was democratic or not, while another 14% did not know or did not answer.

  • mumblerfish@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    16 hours ago

    This was very informative.

    It would also be of interest to see the formulation of the questions. A lot of the far-right deny that their views are authoritarian or autocratic and just call it “democracy”. I wonder how narrow the questions and how well they can highlight a distiction between e.g. " democracy" (which may include autocratic rule) and “liberal democracy” (which would not include autocracy).