The Democracy Perception Index (DPI) is the world’s largest annual study on democracy, covering more than 50 countries and representative of more than 75% of the world’s population. The DPI is conducted by Latana in collaboration with the Alliance of Democracies, to monitor attitudes towards democracy from around the world.
Some Key Statistics for the Philippines
Background cartoon by Clifford K. Berryman 1898
The study shows that people still have faith in Democracy: 81% of people around the world say that it is important to have democracy in their country. However, only a little more than half (53%) say their country is actually democratic today - even in democracies.
Respondents view economic inequality as the single biggest threat to democracy around the world (64%).
About half of people (48%) in the global survey say that the power of Big Tech companies is a threat to democracy in their country, with people in the US having the largest concern of Big Tech (62%) out of all the democracies.
Biden’s Democracy Summit and the UK’s Democracies-10 initiative
About half of people in the countries polled support the idea of an Alliance of Democracies (in the form of either Biden’s proposed Democracy Summit or the UK's D-10 initiative).
A ‘Biden effect’?
The survey offers a mixed picture for Americans with many countries still holding negative views about US influence – but there are also some early signs of a "Biden effect":
Nearly half (44%) of respondents in the 53 countries surveyed are concerned that the US threatens democracy in their country; fear of Chinese influence is 38%, and fear of Russian influence is lowest at 28%.
However, since last year, the perception of US influence on democracy around the world has increased significantly, from a net opinion of +6 to a net opinion of +14. This increase is particularly high in Germany (+20) and China (+16).
The countries still overwhelmingly negative about US influence are Russia and China, followed by European democracies.
Pandemic backlash?
Around the world, about 58% of people say their country is responding well to the COVID-19 crisis. Asian countries have the highest rates of satisfaction at 75%, while Latin America and Europe have the lowest (42% and 45% respectively).
Overall satisfaction with governments' pandemic responses has dropped dramatically since last year, from 70% to 58% globally. This drop is largest in more democratic countries (down to 51%) and in Europe (down to 45%).
The perception that governments have done too much to limit freedoms during the pandemic has grown over the past year in almost all countries, from 45% in 2020 to 53% in 2021.
Source: allianceofdemocracies.org