In a survey that attests Indians strongly believe in democratic principles, a new study has found that 85 per cent of the country’s population trust the government.
In the report based on its survey on governance and trust among key countries, the Pew Research Center, however, noted that the majority (55 per cent) of the population in the world’s largest democracy also support military rule and autocracy.
More than one-fourth (27%) of the people who took part in the survey said that they want a ‘strong leader’.
"In India, where the economy has grown on average by 6.9% since 2012, 85% (of people) trust their national government," it said.
Nearly half of Russians (48 per cent) back governance by a strong leader, but rule by a strong leader is generally unpopular, it said.
A global median of 26 per cent say a system in which a strong leader can make decisions without interference from parliament or the courts would be a good way of governing. Roughly seven-in-10 (71 per cent) say it would be a bad type of governance.
India is one of the three countries in the Asia Pacific region where people support technocracy. "Asian-Pacific publics generally back rule by experts, particularly people in Vietnam (67 per cent), India (65 per cent) and the Philippines (62 per cent)," it said.
Only Australians are notably wary as 57 per cent say it would be a bad way to govern, and only 41 per cent support governance by experts, the report said.
According to the survey, 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.
But in these societies, older people (those aged 50 and older) are the least supportive of the army running the country, and they are the ones who either personally experienced the struggle to establish democratic rule or are the immediate descendants of those democratic pioneers, Pew said.
Only one in 10 in Europe back military rule. Pew said more than half in each of the 38 nations polled consider representative democracy a very or somewhat good way to govern their country.
Yet, in all countries, pro-democracy attitudes coexist, to varying degrees, with openness to non-democratic forms of governance, including rule by experts, a strong leader, or the military.
With PTI Inputs
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