Fifty-five percent of respondents polled in India say a system in which a strong leader can make decisions without parliamentary or judicial interference is a “somewhat” or “very” good way of governing their country, according to a Pew Research Center survey released on Monday.
Indonesia, the Philippines, Russia and South Africa round out the top 5 nations indicating support for unconstrained executive power. Meanwhile, only 6 percent of Germans and 9 percent of Swedes back such a political system. Twenty-two percent of Americans are in favor, about four percentage points below the median for the 38 countries surveyed from February 16 to May 8.
People in wealthier nations “tend to be more committed to representative democracy,” according to the report. And in many countries, people with less education and those on the ideological right are “more willing to consider nondemocratic alternatives,” the authors found.