Harvard university has been abuzz in particular: young people in particular is that to repudiate the system.
Throughout the world increases day by day the number of young people who trust less and less Democracy, as well as those who are turning to more authoritarian alternatives. This is the conclusion of the study, professor of the Harvard Yascha Mounk and Roberto Stefan Foa, a political scientist at the University of Melbourne, as reported by the New York Times. According to the survey, which will be published in January in the Journal of Democracy, the percentage of those who consider that their life has meaning only in a Democracy decreasing, particularly among people born in the decades of the 70’s and 80’s.
In the united states, Britain and New Zealand, just one in four born in the ’80 considers it necessary to live in a country that is a democracy. The importance of the democratic system is recognized more than older people -75% of those born in the decades of the 30’s and 40’s in the US, 60% in New Zealand and a little over 50% in Britain. The faith in Democracy is comparatively higher in Sweden, but particularly low in the Netherlands. But in both of these countries, young people attach less value to Democracy than the older ones.
The research findings are causing consternation, as scientists believed until recently that the elders are those who trust less the existing democracies. And that’s because mainly the elderly are the voters αντισυστημικών, right-wing populist movements like the AfD in Germany and Donald Trump in the US. The liberal opponents of these streams turn their hopes mainly to people who are animated by a progressive, democratic ideals
In the future there may be fewer western Democracies
The researchers Μουηκ and Foa warn of a shrinking of democratic forms of governance in the western world. For their study they developed a model of three factors. The first shows how important they consider the citizens to continue to exist in the Republic. The second relates to the honesty vs. non-democratic forms of governance, while the third describes the support of parties and movements, who consider that the current system lacks legitimacy.
The political scientists found surprised that in many countries -from the USA to Australia, New Zealand and european countries – is remarkably large number of respondents do not consider important the Republic in which they live and at the same time prefer a more authoritarian regime. Their findings, they say, can be used as an early warning system, which can recognize the symptoms before they develop into even more serious problems.
The “millenials†believe that legitimised coups
In 2014 one in six Americans believed that a military junta is good to very good. In 1995, just one in 16 agree with this point of view. In a previous study, the researchers had concluded that the “millenialsâ€, those born between 1980 and 1999, in the U.S. only one in five considered illegal coups, rate which reached 43% in older ages.
In Europe the percentage of “millenials†featuring illegal coups reaches 36%, and exceed 50% in older ages.
The support αντισυστημικών movements has increased significantly across the globe. The New York Times cite as examples the electoral victory of Donald Trump in the U.S., the Front National in France, SYRIZA in Greece and the Movement 5 Stars in Italy. All this, of course, does not necessarily mean that collapse of the state forms in the West, after the researchers have neglected e.x. other factors, such as economic development. On top of that, I don’t agree with all of the political scientists as to how much disturbing are the findings of the research of the Foa and the Mounk.
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Harvard study: Losing the new generation, the faith in Democracy?
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