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Democracy

The democracy barometers: surveying South Asia

Support for democracy is widespread in South Asia

Authors: P.R. de Souza; P. Suhas; Y. Yadav
Publisher: Democracy Asia, 2008

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This paper discusses results of the first-ever simultaneous survey of attitudes toward democracy in the five countries of South Asia - Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka - based on a large and representative sample of adult citizens. The survey provides evidence to suggest widespread support for democracy throughout the region.

According to the authors, support for democracy, however, goes beyond a liking for the word “democracy” and extends to expressing approval of the institutional form of democratic government. People in the region overwhelmingly favor the rule of “leaders elected by the people,” with only a handful of respondents disagreeing with the idea of representative democracy. In Pakistan and Nepal, the two countries that did not have representative democracy at the time of the survey, about a quarter of the respondents offered no response to this question. Other main findings include:

  • people not only approve of democratic arrangements, but also find them suitable for their own contexts
  • doubt or uncertainty regarding the suitability of democracy surfaced in the form of “no response”: nearly a third of the persons interviewed in the region - many more in Pakistan and Bangladesh - did not offer any response to this question
  • the citizens of South Asia do not simply like democracy, they prefer it to authoritarian rule. With the exception of Pakistan, about two-thirds of those who responded preferred democracy over any other form of government
  • only one out of ten responses overtly supported the idea that “sometimes dictatorship is better than democracy.” But a significant number of people are either indifferent or ignorant about this crucial choice.
The authors conclude that support for the idea of democracy and support for the institutional form of democratic governance fit together in a meaningful pattern that holds positive implications for democracy’s future in the region. In addition, the division between strong democrats and non-democrats does not follow the social fault lines of these societies. Although democracy has yet to become the only game in town in the region, the factors that drive support for democracy are such that one can expect a strengthening of democratic sentiment where it is currently weak.

(adapted from authors)