Romanians among EU citizens most favorable to dictatorship, poll says

Romanians are among the top European nations that would prefer a dictatorship instead of democracy, according to a survey conducted by AboutPeople at the request of ProgressiveLab and cited by Politico. However, nearly 70% of Europeans said they would reject an authoritarian regime.

Conducted in five European countries with different democratic traditions, the study appears to show that the problem is not the idea of democracy itself, but the way it functions. One in five Europeans questioned as part of the poll said that democracy does not work and that a dictatorship would be more efficient.

The percentage of those dissatisfied is very high in Greece, where 76% of respondents said they are disappointed with how the democratic system works. The same opinion is shared in France (68%), Romania (66%), the United Kingdom (42%), and Sweden (32%).

Regarding trust in public institutions, the EU enjoys a fairly high percentage, at 43%. The press is credited with 27%, and political parties with only 24%.

In Greece, 55% of respondents said they do not feel close to the party they voted for. The percentages are similar in Romania (53%), the UK (47%), France (43%), and Sweden (32%).

According to the poll, 22% of those questioned stated that, in certain cases, they would prefer a dictatorship. Moreover, 26% said they would not mind if a leader considered capable and efficient were to limit democratic rights. However, an aggregate average across all five countries of 69% rejects the idea of an authoritarian regime.

“Countries such as Romania, which have experienced rapid economic growth in recent years, do not seem to be establishing greater confidence in liberal democracy,” said professor Dimitris Papadimitriou of the University of Manchester, cited by the US publication.

“Rich countries such as Sweden are seeing their democratic institutions come under pressure and citizens’ trust in them decline. France, and to a lesser extent Britain, are in deep crisis. Greece seems to be balancing uncomfortably between a general crisis of confidence in its institutions and a somewhat nebulous belief in the ideals of democracy,” he added.

The poll comes as populist and nationalist parties are gaining ground in several European states. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, far-right formations are recording high scores in polls. A third of the participants in this study do not consider the rise of the far right to be a danger to democracy. In Romania, the isolationist party Alliance for the Union of Romanians, or AUR,