80% of Pinoys satisfied with way democracy works in PH

But that’s 6 points below 2016 survey

Slightly fewer Filipinos remain satisfied with the way democracy works in the country, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey results released on the 45th anniversary of the martial law declara- tion.

The nationwide survey conducted last June 23-26 with 1,200 respondents found 80 percent of Filipino adults satisfied with the way democracy works in the Philippines.

This is six points below the recordhigh 86 percent in September 2016.

SWS explained that satisfaction with the way democracy works has been above 60 percent since June 2010, ranging from 64 to 86 percent.

In contrast, it exceeded 50 percent in only two out of 31 surveys from October 1999 to June 2009.

The question on “satisfaction in the way democracy works” originated in the Eurobarometer surveys and is also in standard use in Latin American and Asian Barometer projects, SWS pointed out.

The June 2017 survey also found 61 percent saying “democracy is always preferable to any other kind of government,” compared to 19 percent saying “under some circumstances, an authoritarian government can be preferable to a democratic one,” and 20 percent saying “for people like me, it does not matter whether we have a democratic or a non-democratic regime.”

Satisfaction with the way democracy works had peaks of 70 percent in October 1992, 70 percent in July 1998, 68 percent in June 2010, and a recordhigh 86 percent in September 2016, related to the successful presidential elections of 1992, 1998, 2010 and 2016, respectively, SWS said.

The previous record of 80 percent in June 2013 was achieved after the May 2013 senatorial elections, it added.

Meanwhile, satisfaction with the way democracy works was a “disappointing” 44 percent in June 2004, after the presidential election of that year.

The proportion of adult Filipinos saying “democracy is always preferable to any other kind of government” was at 61 percent in June 2017, similar to 62 percent in September 2016.

The proportion of those saying “under some circumstances, an authoritarian government can be preferable to a democratic one” was steady at 19 percent from September 2016 to June 2017.