A third of Turkish adults are satisfied with the way democracy is working in their country, while the other two-thirds express dissatisfaction. More than a third (37%) say they are not satisfied at all.
Since we last asked this question in Turkey in 2019, satisfaction with democracy has dropped 14 points, from 47% to 33% today.
Turks who hold a favorable opinion of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are more likely than those who see him unfavorably to express satisfaction with democracy (65% vs. 9%). And Muslims who pray five salah daily are more likely than those who pray less frequently to have a positive outlook on their democracy.
On the other hand, only 13% of those with a positive opinion of former opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu – Erdoğan’s opponent in the May 2023 presidential election – are satisfied with the way democracy is working.
Views of different political systems
Is Turkey a democracy?
Turkey is a parliamentary democracy, according to its constitution. In practice, the government is classified as a “hybrid regime” by the Economist Intelligence Unit, an “electoral autocracy” by the Varieties of Democracy project, and “not free” by Freedom House.
Turks greatly prefer democratic types of government to nondemocratic systems like rule by the military or by a strong leader.
Eight-in-ten Turkish adults say that a representative democracy (a system where representatives elected by citizens decide what becomes law) would be a good way to govern the country. An almost identical share (79%) says the same about a direct democracy (a system where citizens, not elected officials, vote directly on major national issues to decide what becomes law).
Only 14% in Turkey say that military rule would be a good way of governing, making it the least popular political system we asked about. However, support for this system has risen from 9% in 2017.
Turks’ evaluations of various government systems are generally comparable to the results of a 24-country survey we conducted in 2023. Turks are within a few points of the 24-country medians when it comes to their support for representative democracy, rule by experts and rule by the military. On direct democracy and rule by a strong leader, Turks express a slightly more positive view than the median respondent.
Views of autocratic leadership
Views on autocracy vary across different groups in Turkey. Roughly half (49%) of those who hold a favorable opinion of Erdoğan think that rule by a strong leader would be a good way to govern the country, compared with 23% of those with an unfavorable view of the Turkish president.
Adults with lower levels of education are more likely than their counterparts with more education (37% vs. 21%) to say autocracy would be a good way to govern the country. (The “less education” category refers to people who have a secondary education or less, while the “more education” category refers to those with a postsecondary education or more.)
In addition, Turkish adults ages 50 and older are 15 points more likely than adults under 35 to say that autocracy would be good for Turkey (43% vs. 28%).
