2021-05-05.
„The US faces an uphill task presenting itself as the chief guardian of global democracy, according to a new poll that shows the US is seen around the world as more of a threat to democracy than even Russia and China.“
„The poll finds support for democracy remains high even though citizens in democratic countries rate their governments’ handling of the Covid crisis less well than people in less democratic countries.“
„Inequality is seen as the biggest threat to global democracy, but in the US the power of big tech companies is also seen as a challenge.“
„The findings come in a poll commissioned by the Alliance of Democracies Foundation among 50,000 respondents in 53 countries.“
„In perhaps the most startling finding, nearly half (44%) of respondents in the 53 countries surveyed are concerned that the US threatens democracy in their country; fear of Chinese influence is by contrast 38%, and fear of Russian influence is lowest at 28%.“
„Since last year, the perception of US influence as a threat to democracy around the world has increased significantly, from a net opinion of +6 to a net opinion of +14. This increase is particularly high in Germany (+20) and China (+16).“
„The countries still overwhelmingly negative about US influence are Russia and China, followed by European democracies.“
„Only a little more than half (53%) say their country is actually democratic today – even in democracies.“
„The single biggest cited threat to democracy is economic inequality (64%).“
„In almost every country surveyed save Saudi Arabia and Egypt limits to free speech are seen as less of a threat to democracy than inequality.“
„Voters in Norway, Switzerland and Sweden are most confident their country is democratic, but so are the Chinese, where 71% agree that China has the right amount of democracy.“
„also make disturbing reading for the eastern European democracies such as Hungary where only 31% of voters think their country is democratic – on a par with findings in Nigeria, Iran, Poland and Venezuela.“
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/05/us-threat-democracy-russia-china-global-poll