While most people see representative democracy as a good way to govern their country, large shares of the public in many countries are open to authoritarianism.
Indeed, a median of 31% across 24 nations are supportive of authoritarian systems, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. The survey asked about two authoritarian models of government: a system in which a strong leader can make decisions without interference from parliament or the courts (“authoritarian leader”) and a system in which the military rules the country (“military rule”).
The share of the public that supports at least one of these models ranges from 85% in India to 8% in Sweden. It tends to be higher in middle-income countries than high-income countries. It also tends to be higher in surveyed countries in the Asia-Pacific region, Africa or Latin America than in Europe and North America.
Who supports authoritarianism?
In most of the 18 countries where we asked about ideology, people on the ideological right are more likely than those in the center or on the left to support authoritarian systems. For example, South Koreans on the right (49%) are nearly twice as likely as those on the left (28%) to support authoritarian systems. Meanwhile, 36% of centrists in South Korea support such systems.
Across Europe, people who have favorable views of right-wing populist parties are also especially likely to support authoritarianism. In Germany, for example, 37% of those who have a favorable view of the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) support these nondemocratic ways of governing, compared with 13% who have an unfavorable view of the AfD.
People with lower incomes also tend to be more supportive of authoritarian systems than those with higher incomes.
This relationship exists in both high-income and middle-income countries (as defined by the World Bank). For example, 47% of those with incomes below the median in the United Kingdom support authoritarian systems, compared with 27% of those with incomes at or above the median.
In a few countries, older and younger adults differ in their support for authoritarian systems. For example, 38% of Americans under age 30 support these nondemocratic alternatives, compared with 29% of those ages 50 to 64 and 26% of those 65 and older. In India and Australia, the pattern is similar. But in Greece, Japan and South Korea, older adults are more supportive of authoritarian systems than younger ones.
How does support for authoritarian systems relate to views of democracy?
A 2019 Center survey asked respondents to rate the importance of democratic values including a fair judiciary system, gender equality, regular elections, free speech, press freedom, freedom on the internet, and the ability for human rights organizations and opposition parties to operate freely. Across each of these dimensions, countries with smaller shares of people who say these values are important in their country have higher numbers who support rule by a strong leader or the military.
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