74% of Pinoys satisfied with Phl democracy – SWS

MANILA, Philippines - More Filipinos are satisfied with the way democracy works in the Philippines, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

Conducted from March 19 to 22, the SWS poll showed satisfaction with how democracy works rose to a record-high 74 percent in the first quarter of 2013, surpassing the previous record-high of 70 percent in September 1992 and July 1998.

The latest satisfaction rate was also up by nine percentage points from 65 percent in March 2012.

The survey also found a majority of 59 percent saying “democracy is always preferable to any other kind of government.”

The remaining 21 percent believe that “under some circumstances, an authoritarian government can be preferable to a democratic one,” while 20 percent think “it does not matter whether we have a democratic or a non-democratic regime.”

Democracy satisfaction rate in past years

The SWS said that the 70 percent democracy satisfaction rate in September 1992 and July 1998 and 68 percent in June 2010 were “obviously related to the successful process of the presidential elections of 1992, 1998, and 2010 respectively.”

Satisfaction with the way democracy works was “disappointing“ at 44 percent in June 2004 after the presidential election that year.

Meanwhile, the 59 percent proportion of adult Filipinos saying “democracy is always preferable to any other kind of government“ in March 2013 is a point higher than the 58 percent in March 2012 and the highest since December 2005 at 64 percent.

The latest preference for democracy rate is similar to the levels of 2002 to 2005 and 2007 when it ranged from 52 percent to 64 percent, and a recovery from 49 percent both in September 2006 and June 2008.

Those who believe that “under some circumstances, an authoritarian government can be preferable to a democratic one” dropped by five points from 26 percent in March 2012 to 21 percent in March 2013. It ranged from 15 percent to 23 percent in 2007 to 2009.

On the other hand, those who believe that “it does not matter whether we have a democratic or a non-democratic regime” rose by four points from 16 percent in March 2012 to 20 percent in March 2013, after ranging from 25 percent to 28 percent from 2006-2009.

The SWS said the question on “satisfaction in the way democracy works” originated in the Eurobarometer surveys and is also in standard use in Latin American and Asian barometer projects.

The non-commissioned survey used face-to-face interviews of 1,800 adults in Metro Manila, the balance of Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

It has sampling error margins of plus or minus two percentage points for national percentage; plus or minus six percentage points for Metro Manila, balance Luzon, Visayas, and plus or minus three percentage points for Mindanao.