72% of Americans say the U.S. used to be a good example of democracy, but isn’t anymore
A median of 40% of adults across 34 other countries surveyed in 2024 say U.S. democracy used to be a good example for other countries to follow.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Democracy
Sign up for our weekly newsletter
Fresh data delivered Saturday mornings
All
Democracy
Publications
-
Ukraine’s National Election – a Problem of Democracy?
With an election approaching, Ukrainians are unhappy with conditions in their country, and most are frustrated with the way democracy is working.
-
Public Opinion Two Decades After the Fall of the Berlin Wall
-
End of Communism Cheered but Now with More Reservations
Publics of former Iron Curtain countries generally look back approvingly at the collapse of communism. Majorities in most former Soviet republics and Eastern European countries endorse the emergence of democracy and capitalism. However, the initial enthusiasm about these changes has dimmed in most of the countries surveyed.
-
The Global Middle Class
Views on Democracy, Religion, Values, and Life Satisfaction in Emerging Nations
-
World Publics Welcome Global Trade — But Not Immigration
The publics of the world broadly embrace key tenets of economic globalization but fear the disruptions and downsides of participating in the global economy. In rich countries as well as poor ones, most people endorse free trade, multinational corporations and free markets. However, the latest Pew Global Attitudes survey of more than 45,000 people finds they are concerned about inequality, threats to their culture, threats to the environment and the threats posed by immigration. And there are signs that enthusiasm for economic globalization is waning in the West.
-
Islam and the West: A Conversation with Bernard Lewis
Hay-Adams Hotel Washington, D.C. The relationship between Islam and the West will be a defining feature of the 21st century, particularly in the Middle East. How should U.S. policymakers engage with the Muslim world? Will the spread of democracy throughout the Muslim world blunt the militant forces generating terrorism? How will European governments and populations […]
-
Russia’s Weakened Democratic Embrace
The latest Pew Global Attitudes poll finds the Russian people would choose a strong economy over a good democracy by a margin of almost six to one.
-
Islam and Democracy: Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan
Washington, D.C. The Pew Forum interviewed Dr. Vali Nasr following a roundtable on Islam and democracy co-sponsored by the Forum and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Nasr is a professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School and an expert on the politics of the Middle East and South […]
-
The Islamic Paradox: Religion and Democracy in the Middle East
Key West, Florida Some of the nation’s leading journalists gathered in Key West, Florida, in May 2005 for the Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle conference on religion, politics and public life. Conference speaker Reuel Marc Gerecht, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Middle East specialist for the CIA, argued that […]
