A new poll shows that a majority of Canadians are satisfied with the state of democracy in their country, while Americans appear to be calling for major reforms instead.
According to a Pew Research Center poll, two-thirds of respondents in Canada said they are satisfied with the way democracy works at home.
Of the 17 countries in which Pew conducted the survey, the only countries with better satisfaction numbers were Singapore with 82%, Sweden with 79% and New Zealand with 76%.
But in the US, 58% of respondents said they were unhappy with the way things were going, in a country that has long been hailed around the world as a “beacon of democratic values”.
These figures put the United States 13th out of 17 countries ahead of Japan, Spain, Italy and Greece, the “cradle of democracy”, which had the lowest satisfaction rating of 31%.
The Canadian portion of the poll was conducted by telephone with 1,011 respondents between March 15 and May 3 – several months before the early federal election, which has hardly changed the political landscape in the House of Commons. The Pew poll has a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
“The desire to reform is relatively low in six countries: Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand,” the Pew Research Center said in a statement. Less than half of the respondents in these six countries want major reforms to their political, economic or health systems. Satisfaction with democracy is also particularly high in these countries.”
health and economy
The survey divides key findings into three specific disciplines: politics, economics, and health care.
Le schisme entre le Canada et les États-Unis est particulièrement important en ce qui concerne le système politique: 85% des répondants américains estiment que leur système de gouvernement comparative avait besoin à changements majeur’s une eur’s % 47 in Canada.
When it comes to healthcare, 76% of American participants wanted a drastic change, compared to 43% of Canadians.
And when it comes to the economic system, 46% of Canadian respondents want far-reaching reform or major changes, compared to 66% of Americans surveyed.
The Pew study also established a direct relationship between the desire for reforms and citizens’ attitudes regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Canada, only 34% of respondents who were satisfied with the way the federal government was handling the pandemic wanted a major overhaul of the political system. Among those dissatisfied with crisis management, 73% wanted change.
In contrast, in the United States, this gap is almost non-existent – 83% and 88%, respectively.
The Pew Center survey was conducted in Canada, the United States, Italy, Spain, Greece, France, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand.