The study comes at a time of rising support for populist and nationalist forces across the continent, with far-right parties riding high in the polls in Germany, France and the U.K.
“Traditional divisions between European countries are receding and the landscape is becoming more complex,” said Dimitris Papadimitriou, professor of political science at the University of Manchester, referring to categorizations such as Western, Eastern and Southern Europe.
“Countries such as Romania, which have experienced rapid economic growth in recent years, do not seem to be establishing greater confidence in liberal democracy,” Papadimitriou said. “Rich countries such as Sweden are seeing their democratic institutions come under pressure and citizens’ trust in them decline. France, and to a lesser extent Britain, are in deep crisis. Greece seems to be balancing uncomfortably between a general crisis of confidence in its institutions and a somewhat nebulous belief in the ideals of democracy.”
As well as one in five — 22 percent — saying that in certain cases a dictatorship may be their preferred option, one in four — 26 percent — also agreed with the statement: “If there was a capable and effective leader in my country, I wouldn’t mind if they limited democratic rights and were not accountable to the citizens for their actions.”
However, pushback to the idea of authoritarian rule remains strong, with 69 percent of respondents rejected that proposal.
“The survey does not express a general dissatisfaction or an uncritical rejection of the democratic system,” said George Siakas, assistant professor at the Democritus University of Thrace in Greece. “It expresses citizens’ dissatisfaction with the way it works, with clear anti-elite and ‘anti-establishment’ characteristics.”
In terms of trust in institutions, the European Union fared best at 43 percent, trumping the media at 27 percent and political parties on 24 percent. A third of those asked disagreed with the view that the rise of the far right poses a danger to democracy.
Greek respondents had the biggest sense of estrangement from their political parties, with 55 percent saying they don’t feel close to the party they voted for in the most recent elections, versus 53 percent in Romania, 47 percent in the U.K., 43 percent in France and 32 percent in Sweden.