Jordan Times
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
81 per cent of Jordanians support democratic principles - poll
By Taylor Luck
AMMAN - Although a vast majority of Jordanians support democratic principles,
many do not believe that citizens should have greater influence over the
government’s decision making, according to the results of a poll on “Democracy
and the Will of the People” released on Tuesday.
The survey, conducted by WorldPublicOpinion.org
and supported and coordinated by the Centre for Strategic Studies at the
University of Jordan, revealed that 81 per cent of respondents agreed that the
will of the public should be the basis of the government’s authority.
In addition, 71 per cent believe that the government should be selected through
elections in which all citizens can vote, according to the poll.
Some 44 per cent of respondents said the will of the public should have a
greater influence over the government, 27 per cent thought it should stay the
same, while 17 per cent felt that the public should have less influence over
government affairs.
When asked how much the Kingdom should be governed by the will of people on a
10-point scale (10 representing “completely”), respondents gave an average
response of 6.6, the second lowest of all the countries polled and well below
the average national response of 8.0.
In the same poll, Iranian respondents reported an 8.4 rating, followed by Egypt
(8.3) and the Palestinian territories (7.6).
Asked how much the country is currently being governed by the will of the
public, however, respondents gave the Kingdom an average 5.4 rating, one of the
highest in all polled countries.
A majority of respondents, some 54 per cent, said they trust the government to
“do the right thing most of the time,” making Jordan one of five countries
polled, where the majority held this view.
Some 38 per cent of respondents said they “just about always” trusted the
government to do the right thing, while 41 per cent said they only trust the
government “some of the time”.
In the same survey, 84 per cent of Egyptian, 55 per cent of Palestinian and 48
per cent of Iranian respondents said they trusted their government to do what is
right “most of the time”.
Jordanians were divided on whether the Kingdom is run by big interests or by the
will of the public, split evenly at 47 per cent apiece.
A vast majority of citizens, 89 per cent, reportedly favour the Kingdom’s
leaders paying attention to public opinion polls when making an important
decision, while 8 per cent believe that public opinion distracts leaders from
using their own judgement.
In comparison, 72 per cent of Egyptians favour their government taking public
opinion into account, while 68 per cent of Iranians, 47 per cent of Palestinians
and 42 per cent of Turks also share that view.
The study, conducted in 19 nations across the world, concluded that in every
nation polled, the public supports democratic principles, while majorities of
nearly every nation are dissatisfied with how responsive their governments are
to the will of the people.
The poll of 17,525 respondents was conducted between January and March of this
year by a collaborative research project involving research centres from across
the world and managed by the Programme on International Policy Attitudes at the
University of Maryland.