rising support for populist and nationalist forces<\/a> across the continent, with far-right parties riding high in the polls in Germany, France and the U.K.<\/p>\n\u201cTraditional divisions between European countries are receding and the landscape is becoming more complex,\u201d said Dimitris Papadimitriou, professor of political science at the University of Manchester, referring to categorizations such as Western, Eastern and Southern Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cCountries such as Romania, which have experienced rapid economic growth in recent years, do not seem to be establishing greater confidence in liberal democracy,\u201d Papadimitriou said. \u201cRich countries such as Sweden are seeing their democratic institutions come under pressure and citizens\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
As well as one in five \u2014\u00a022 percent \u2014\u00a0saying that in certain cases a dictatorship may be their preferred option, one in four \u2014\u00a026 percent \u2014 also agreed with the statement: \u201cIf there was a capable and effective leader in my country, I wouldn\u2019t mind if they limited democratic rights and were not accountable to the citizens for their actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, pushback to the idea of authoritarian rule remains strong, with 69 percent of respondents rejected that proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe survey does not express a general dissatisfaction or an uncritical rejection of the democratic system,\u201d said George Siakas, assistant professor at the Democritus University of Thrace in Greece. \u201cIt expresses citizens\u2019 dissatisfaction with the way it works, with clear anti-elite and \u2018anti-establishment\u2019 characteristics.\u201d <\/p>\n
In terms of trust in institutions, the European Union fared best at 43 percent, trumping the media at 27 percent and political parties on 24 percent. A third of those asked disagreed with the view that the rise of the far right poses a danger to democracy.<\/p>\n
Greek respondents had the biggest sense of estrangement from their political parties, with 55 percent saying they don\u2019t feel close to the party they voted for in the most recent elections, versus 53 percent in Romania, 47 percent in the U.K., 43 percent in France and 32 percent in Sweden.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n