The report did, however, find an “island of contentment,” a select group of countries in which less than a quarter of the public expresses discontent with their political system. In Switzerland, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands, for example, satisfaction with democracy is bucking the trend and reaching all-time highs. Austria, Ireland and Luxembourg round out the contented few.
The researchers used “a new data set combining more than 25 data sources, 3,500 country surveys, and 4 million respondents between 1973 and 2020 asking citizens whether they are satisfied or dissatisfied with democracy in their countries.” They created four categories to represent the range form dissatisfaction to satisfaction: crisis, malaise, concern and contented. The latter two include countries where at least half the population is satisfied with their democracy. Canada was at least well across that threshold, sitting in the “concern” category, better than the U.S. which sits in the “malaise” group.
What, one wonders, do the chosen few have in common that might lead them to the contented isle. One answer of course is that they are all rich. But that alone is obviously not the answer. All the Anglo nations are rich but none made the cut. The contented countries also have solid social welfare systems and that must surely help. Knowing that your society has your back will no doubt boost your confidence in your governance.
And then there is another commonality that may be an important factor—they all use proportional representation (PR) voting systems. Even among the Anglo nations, the one that uses a PR system (New Zealand) showed the greatest satisfaction. Is it possible that if your government is democratically elected, i.e. election results accurately reflect the will of the people, you have a greater confidence and greater satisfaction with democracy? Now there's a thought.
1 comment:
Excellent post, Bill. Thanks. Electoral reform is the sine qua non of democratic restoration in Canada. When fewer than two out of five voters will elect a powerful majority government that can leave three out of five inexcusably under-represented. When the government that eked out that false majority then reneges on its major campaign promises, democracy is defeated. Both Harper and Trudeau cynically claimed to have won powerful mandates, rubbing salt in the wounds.
I believe that neoliberalism also undermines healthy democracy. Government yields incidents of national sovereignty to the corporate sector, trusting that the market knows best. I remember when Mulroney sold the "new economy" and how, by ditching the old economy with its manufacturing base, we would have more and better jobs in the knowledge economy. That assumed a degree of voluntary benevolence from the corporate sector, something the private sector never promised nor had any intention of delivering.
We witnessed major corporations blossom into multinationals before ultimately transforming into transnationals that migrated above and beyond the regulatory reach of nation states, birthing the new precariat and deferring/avoiding taxes wherever possible.
In this new power structure, the citizen is disenfranchised, powerless. Look how even the Liberals indulged the private sector - KPMG and the Isle of Man tax scam, Bombardier and the Irvings, SNC Lavalin, even as Morneau tells Canadians they'll just have to get used to a future of "job churn." Hardly gets folks singing "The Maple Leaf Forever" does it?
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