In World’s Largest Democracy, 55% Favor Autocracy: Pew Survey

Majority of Indians support non-democratic representations, according to the Pew Research Center’s Democracy Report released on Oct. 16. Only 8 per cent Indians are committed to representative democracy, according to their commitment to representative democracy index. Representative democracy is a system where citizens elect representatives to the government.  

At least 67 per cent people surveyed fall in the category of less committed (respondents who say a representative democracy is good but also support at least one non-democratic form of government) category, while 9 per cent do not support representative democracy and instead support at least one non-democratic form of government, falling into the non-democratic category. The sample size of the survey was 2,464, with a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.  

“In Asia 55 per cent of Indians, 52 per cent of Indonesians and 50 per cent of Filipinos favor autocracy. Such support is particularly intense in India, where 27 per cent very strongly back a strong leader,” the report said. The three countries are also the ones that favor autocracy the most. India is the biggest democracy in the world.  

Almost 53 per cent Indians also answered in favor of military rule. However, in these countries the older population (aged 50 and  above) have been the least supportive of military rule. “They have either personally experienced the struggle to establish democratic rule or are the immediate descendants of those democratic pioneers,” the research said.  

“Roughly half of both Indians (53 per cent) and South Africans (52 per cent), who live in nations that often hold themselves up as democratic exemplars for their regions, say military rule would be a good thing for their countries,” it said.  

According to the survey, almost 65 per cent Indians who were polled also said that a governing system in which experts and not elected officials make decisions would be good. 

About 85 per cent of Indian citizens also trust their national government while 46 per cent “somewhat” trusted the government to do what was right.