New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi are two leaders with some of the highest domestic favourability ratings for politicians, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center.
Published Wednesday, the report, which surveyed 30,861 individuals across 24 countries between 20 February and 22 May last year, studied the opinions of the general public towards democracy and political representation.
Of the 24 national leaders polled, Modi has a 79 percent favourability rating, the third highest in the world after Indonesian president Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo (89 percent) and Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (82 percent).
The Pew report also studied the favourability ratings of 33 opposition leaders across the 24 countries, including three from India. Of the 33 opposition leaders, only six are viewed favourably by their domestic audience – Magdalena Andersson of Sweden, Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono of Indonesia, Peter Obi of Nigeria, Raila Odinga of Kenya, Bola Tinubu of Nigeria apart from Gandhi.
62 percent of Indians surveyed have a favourable view of Gandhi, the third highest among the opposition leaders surveyed. The other two Indian opposition leaders surveyed were Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (42 percent favourable rating) and Mallikarjun Kharge (46 percent).
Some of these countries had election post-survey. For example, Bola Tinubu of Nigeria became the president of Nigeria in May 2023.
Both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Indian National Congress (INC) were surveyed by Pew. The BJP had a rating of 73 percent, while 60 percent of respondents held a favourable view of the INC. However, 36 percent of Indians held an unfavourable view of the INC, while it was 25 percent for the BJP.
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Technocrats, authoritarianism & democracy
Strong support for a representative democracy in India has fallen in 2023, in comparison with 2017, the report found.
In 2023, only 36 percent of Indians polled believed that representative democracy is a very good way of governing their country. In 2017, 44 percent of Indians held this view. This is keeping in line with the larger trend seen across the 23 other countries surveyed by Pew.
Out of the 24 countries surveyed in 2023, Pew has the data of views regarding representative democracy from 22 countries in 2017 as well.
In 11 out of the 22 countries where data from 2017 and 2023 exist, there has been a significant decline in the support for a representative democracy. In Sweden, for example, there has been a steep fall from 54 percent to 41 percent.
In India, support for a strong leader – defined by Pew as one who can make decisions without interference from the judiciary or the legislature – has increased by 12 percentage points between 2017 and 2023.
In 2017, 55 percent of Indians believed a strong leader as a good way of governing the country. In 2023, the figure stands at 67 percentage points. Support for autocratic leadership is the strongest in India among the countries surveyed.
Similarly, support for a technocratic form of government — one led by technocrats or experts — registered a significant increase in India between 2017 and 2023. In 2017, 65 percent believed a technocratic government is a good method of governance. In 2023, 82 percent of Indians polled held this view — an increase of 17 percentage points.
Direct democracy — where citizens vote directly on major issues — has large support in India. 43 percent of Indians believe that this is a very good method of governance — higher than 36 percent who held the same view for representative democracy.
A total of 80 percent of Indians believed that direct democracy is a very good or somewhat good method of government.
Military rule has large support in India, the report found. While 72 percent of Indians support the military, 43 percent believe it is a very good form of governance. 29 percent believe it is a somewhat good form of governance — the highest among the countries surveyed.
Indonesians are the second in terms of support for military rule — an important finding to note given that Jakarta for large parts of the second half of the 20th century was ruled by the armed forces.
Nearly seven-in-ten Indians (68 percent) believe that more women politicians would improve the policymaking process. Among the 24 countries surveyed, Indians are the most likely to hold this view.
In comparison, only 29 percent of Indonesians are of the same opinion. Nearly half of them (49 percent) believe that there will be no difference in policies with larger women representation.
Similarly, 62 percent of Indians surveyed believe policymaking would improve with politicians from poor backgrounds — the highest among the countries surveyed. Next in the list are Greeks (62 percent) and Nigerians (61 percent).
Despite seemingly large support for different forms of government, 72 percent of the Indians polled are satisfied with the current system of democracy in their country. This is a 2 per cent increase from 2019.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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