Europe and the USA are losing faith in democracy and the future, according to a new poll. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Gen Z now has the most pessimistic views of the future – and who can fucking blame them?

Actually, that ‘new poll’ bit isn’t quite true. Recently, the Canaryreported on survey results indicating that UK voters regretted everything to do with Brexit. These results are from that same poll, but we thought they merited examination in their own right.

So, to recap, Yonder Data solutions conducted the survey for FGS Global, a major public relations firm. Almost 20,000 people took part, of whom 11,714 were in the EU and 2,022 were in the UK.

Notably, US Americans also participated – their reflections are relevant for this section, whilst they didn’t matter so much for the Brexit debate.

Brits aren’t looking hopefully to the future

Of the 27 countries surveyed, UK respondents were the most negative about their country’s future. In fact, 73% thought that the UK is ‘going in the wrong direction’.

Of the British participants, two in every three (67%) thought that the UK’s best years were behind it. By contrast, just 14% said the best was still to come.

Continuing the pessimistic trend, the UK was the country whose participants were least likely to agree that life would be better for the next generation. In fact, only around 10% thought that their children would have it better than them – vs 77% who disagreed.

Following on from all this, UK participants – particularly Gen Z – were also more likely to believe that elections had little power to make their lives better.

In total, 27% of British respondents believed that voting ‘made no difference, compared to 65% who said the opposite. Whilst this result still showed faith in democratic power, it was by far the lowest out of all the countries surveyed – including the USA.

Gen Z losing faith in democracy

The 27 countries surveyed all have (nominally) democratic governments. However, the majority of respondents believed that democracy itself is facing a crisis.

Across the entire poll, 69% responded that democracy is losing power. Likewise, 69% also agreed that ‘strong leaders increasingly have more power than international institutions’. And, further than that, 74% supported the assertion that the system serves ‘a rich and powerful elite’ rather than the voters themselves.

Meanwhile, in the UK specifically, some 79% of participants favoured democratically elected leaders. Conversely, 12% voiced a preference for ‘authoritarian leaders who do not bother with elections’.

That worrying subset who favored authoritarianism was even more pronounced among the UK’s Gen Z – that is, people currently aged 14 to 29. 72% of that set favoured democracy, vs 18% who sided with authoritarians. At the other end of the scale, 87% of Baby Boomers voiced support for democracy.

Who can blame them?

Now, of course, any number higher than 0% supporting authoritarianism is cause for concern. In particular, the fact that nearly one in every five of the UK’s youngest voting generation favour dictators is truly staggering. However, it’s not exactly difficult to see why Britain’s youth are losing faith in elections.

For decades in this country, we’ve had a two-party political system in which both options are increasingly identical.

Labour – our supposedly left-wing option – has been parroting Tory (and now Reform) right-wing talking points for years. Just look at their policies on immigration, and welfare, and healthcare, and… well, you get the point.

Why would a generation that’s only ever known elections that decide what colour wrapper the same old shit will come in have any faith in democracy to make things better?

Meanwhile, Gen Z has also been shown time and time again that there are no consequences for world leaders who act with no regard for international law.

Israel’s Netanyahu has committed genocide in front of our eyes, and the UK can’t even bring itself to condemn him. Meanwhile, Trump actively tried to overthrow the US government and got off Scott-free – and even got elected again.

We must change, for good – for Gen Z

The poll was conducted before the US invasion of Venezuela and kidnap of Maduro. However, if anyone wanted proof that authoritarianism carries no consequences, they’d need look no further than the slimy UK politicians who refuse even to say that Trump has clearly broken international law.

So, sure – it’s easy to see why faith in democracy is waning, and for Gen Z most of all. However, authoritarianism cannot be the answer to this problem. Trump’s America has clearly shown that strong-arm leaders have no reason to care for the 99%.

We must work to show that democracy is capable of delivering justice and positive change, now – before it is too late. The system as we know it, as most of us have always known it, simply isn’t working.

Featured image via the Canary

By Alex/Rose Cocker

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