In the September 2018 poll released Thursday night, 84 percent of Filipinos found democracy in the country to be satisfactory. This is an increase of six points from the 78 percent recorded last March.
The survey also found out that 59 percent of Filipinos who may be called “committed democrats,” said “democracy is always preferable to any other kind of government.” This is a one-point decrease from last March’s 70 percent.
However, 20 percent of Filipinos said that “under some circumstances, an authoritarian government can be preferable to a democratic one”. They can be called as “conditional authoritarians.”
Meanwhile, 19 percent of Filipinos are “indifferent,” saying, “it does not matter whether we have a democratic or a non-democratic regime.”
Results showed that satisfaction was highest among “committed democrats” at 88 percent, 80 percent at “conditional authoritarians”, and those “indifferent” at 74 percent.
SWS said satisfaction with democracy had peaks of 70 percent (September 1992), 70 percent (July 1998), 68 percent (June 2010) and the record-high of 86 percent (September 2016).
An 80 percent satisfaction was recorded in June 2013, which was achieved after the May 2013 elections.
The survey was conducted with 1,500 adults from 18 years old and above nationwide as respondents. The survey was conducted from September 15-23. /muf