INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
A recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed that 78 percent of adult Filipinos in March 2018 are satisfied with the way democracy works in the country, which is slightly down from the 80 percent in June 2017.
Out of the respondents, 60 percent also preferred a democratic government to any other form, 19 percent would sometimes prefer authoritarianism, while 21 percent said that the form of government does not matter.
SWS said that the results of the survey, which was held from March 23 to 27, was obtained through face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults, with 300 each coming from Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
According to SWS, this is the lowest satisfaction rate during the tenure of President Rodrigo Duterte, after a record-high of 86 percent in September 2016, and the second-highest mark of 80 percent in June 2017.
However, this lowest mark still fares better than that of Duterte’s predecessors, as the record high of former Presidents Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada was at 70 percent and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was at 68 percent.
Only former President Benigno Aquino III touched the 80 percent level, which was on June 2013 after the 2013 Midterm Elections.
The satisfaction of Filipinos toward a democratic system is higher than the average European, as Eurobarometer said that for November 2017, an average of 57 percent are satisfied with how democracy works in 28 European Union Member States.
The numbers for Latin America even go lower according to a June 2016 Latinobarometro survey of 18 countries in the region, where an average of 34 percent were appreciative of the brand of democracy within their government.
The research firm maintains sampling error margins of ±3% for national data, and ±6% for each locale. /jpv
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