Over the last few years, it’s hard to shake the sense that democracy is in something of a crisis, with fake news rampant, populist parties in the ascendancy, and public faith in politicians plummeting.  This malaise is encapsulated in a recent report from Cambridge University, which highlights how dissatisfaction with democratic politics has leaped from a third of people to half of us over the last 25 years.

The research, which was compiled by a team from the university’s new Centre for the Future of Democracy, shows that 2019 was the worst year on record for democratic discontent.  The study consists of data from over 4 million people, taken from over 25 international surveys conducted across 154 countries between 1995 and 2020.

“Across the globe, democracy is in a state of malaise,” the researchers say. “We find that dissatisfaction with democracy has risen over time, and is reaching an all-time global high, in particular in developed countries.”

A sharp fall

The data suggests the sharpest fall has been since 2005, during which 38.7% of people were unhappy with democracy, but this has since risen to a shocking 57.5%.  This record unhappiness is reflected in democracies from around the world, including the UK, US, Australia and Brazil, with Japan, Spain and Greece also near an all-time high.

Indeed, there only really seems to be a small island of contentment, covering Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and the Netherlands, in which satisfaction is at an all-time high.

“We found a select group of nations, containing just two per cent of the world’s democratic citizenry, in which less than a quarter of the public express discontent with their political system,” the researchers say.

Major events, such as economic shocks or corruption scandals had a major impact on satisfaction levels, as did events like the 2015 refugee crisis.  The financial crisis, for instance, resulted in a rise of 6.5% in dissatisfaction around the world.

This can be stemmed, however, when democracies work effectively, and work together, to tackle these problems. For instance, when the European Council began the European Stability Mechanism in response to the financial crisis, dissatisfaction shrunk by 10% in Western Europe.

Perhaps the most dramatic shift has been in the US, where satisfaction has fallen from around 75% in 1995 to under half today.

“Such levels of democratic dissatisfaction would not be unusual elsewhere,” the researchers say. “But for the United States it may mark an end of exceptionalism, and a profound shift in America’s view of itself.”

The authors believe that the repeated financial and foreign policy failures have eroded trust in democracies, with corruption and state fragility also playing a major part in certain parts of the world.  This has resulted in a gradual decline in faith from the post-Cold War era, where so many countries emerged with great confidence in their democratic futures.

“If confidence in democracy has been slipping, it is because democratic institutions have been seen failing to address some of the major crises of our era, from economic crashes to the threat of global warming,” the authors conclude. “To restore democratic legitimacy, that must change.”