Majority of Indians have faith in government, over 25% want ‘strong leader’: Pew Survey

Washington, Oct 17: According to a latest survey conducted by Pew Research Centre here more than four-fifths or 85 percent of Indian people have faith in their government while 27% 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,” Pew Research said in a report based on its survey on governance and trust among key countries.

According to the survey, 55% of Indians support autocracy in one way or the other. In fact, more than one-fourth (27%) want a “strong leader”, the survey said.

Nearly half of the Russians (48%) back governance by a strong leader, but the prospect is generally unpopular, the report said.

A global median of 26% 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%) say it would be a bad type of governance.

India is one of the three countries in the Asia Pacific where people support technocracy (a government comprising elite of technical experts). “Asian-Pacific publics generally back rule by experts, particularly people in Vietnam (67%), India (65%) and the Philippines (62%),” the report said. Only Australians are notably wary, as 57% say it would be a bad way to govern.

According to the survey, roughly half of both Indians (53%) and South Africans (52%) say military rule would be a good thing for their countries. But in these societies, older people (those aged 50 and above) are least supportive of the idea, and they are the ones who either experienced the struggle to establish democratic rule or are the immediate descendants of those democratic pioneers, Pew said.

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.