People in Scotland are more dissatisfied with government than those in England
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Few people in the UK think politics is working for them with the country ranking firmly in the bottom half of an international league table for satisfaction with the political system, according to research by the Policy Institute at King’s College London.
Just 17 per cent of Brits think the country is well run compared to 37 per cent who believe it is not but in Scotland those numbers suggest even greater frustration with 15 per cent “highly satisfied” while 37 per cent were “unsatisfied”.
Only Northern Ireland registered lower rates of dissatisfaction of 56 per cent and just eight per cent highly satisfied amid a stand-off that has seen the work of the assembly at Stormont grind to a halt.
Comparatively of the devolved nations, Wales rated considerably higher with 17 per cent content with the government and 28 per cent unhappy with its performance, while England was just behind with 17 per cent and 32 per cent not.
The analysis was carried out as part of the World Values Survey (WVS), one of the largest and most widely used academic social surveys in the world, in operation since 1981.
UK ranks between Russia and Mexico
So the UK, among the lowest of 23 countries analysed, and on a par with satisfaction in Russia (16 per cent), Mexico (17 per cent) and well behind Norway (41 per cent), Canada and Germany (both 36 per cent).
Despite the widespread dissatisfaction with how UK democracy is working in practice, the public haven’t lost faith in it in principle, and have in fact become more supportive of democracy. In 1999, 76 per cent of Britons thought democracy was a very or fairly good way of governing the country, in 2022 that rose to 90 per cent.
Despite that Britons on the centre-left politically is at its highest in four decades at 24 per cent, 14 per cent said they were on the centre-right but overall Britons are most likely to put themselves at the centre of the political spectrum and that rose to 47 per cent.
Meanwhile the share of Britons identifying on the centre-left politically is at its highest in four decades and now stands at 24 per cent – the highest since the World Values Survey began – with a rise of five percentage points since 2018.
By comparison, 14 per cent of the British public said they were on the centre-right in 2022 – down from 18 per cent four years earlier – but overall Britons have long been most likely to put themselves at the centre of the political spectrum and that rose to 47 per cent compared with 41 per cent in 1981.
No evidence Brits want authoritarian government
Professor Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, said: “Support for the idea of democracy is extremely high and rising in the UK – but we are much less convinced by how it is working for us right now. The vast majority say that democracy is a good idea and important, but only 17 per cent of us highly satisfied with how our political system is currently functioning, putting us in the bottom half of international league tables.
“There is no evidence here that people in the UK are tired of the principle of democracy and are becoming more open to authoritarian models of government – we’re at risk of mixing up dissatisfaction with the outcomes people have experienced in recent years with a decline in support the system as a whole.
“For example, only minorities support the idea of a strong leader who ignores elections or army rule – and this really hasn’t changed over recent decades. It is true that Millennials seemed less enthusiastic about democracy when they first came into adulthood, but they have now come much more into line with older generations.
“What has changed is increasing support for expert roles in national decision-making, which is now at record levels in the UK. It’s easy to caricature the UK as drifting to identity-driven politics and sympathy for authoritarian models of government, but the reality shown in these long-term trends and international comparisons is we’re still committed to democracy and recognise the importance of expertise.”
