When Democracy Isn't Democratic Enough with Pew Research's Richard Wike and Patrick Moynihan

Across democracies worldwide, citizens aren't necessarily losing faith in democratic values -- they're frustrated with how democracy is actually working in their countries. New research reveals a striking pattern: from the United States to Italy to South Korea, people want better representation and more responsive leadership, not necessarily a different system of government. 

In this episode, Pew Research Center's Richard Wike and Patrick Moynihan share insights from their extensive global democracy study spanning 31 countries, explaining how they measure democratic satisfaction across different cultures and political systems and the fascinating regional patterns that are revealed, like the north-south divide in European attitudes and America's uniquely high levels of political polarization. They share their methodological approach to conducting cross-national surveys and touch on upcoming new research on global views about free speech and inequality. 

Resources 

Freedom House  

Economist Intelligence Unit  

V-Dem  

International IDEA  

World Values Survey  

‘Economic Inequality Seen as Major Challenge Around the World’ - Pew Research Center (Richard Wike et al)  

‘What Can Improve Democracy’ - Pew Research Center  

‘What the World Thinks in 2002’ - Pew Research Center  

2022 Political Polarization Study - Pew Research Center  

31-Country Democracy Study - Pew Research Center  

Global Attitudes Project - Pew Research Center  

‘The Danger of Deconsolidation: The Democratic Disconnect’ - Roberto Stefan Foa, Yascha Mounk 

 

Our Guests 

Patrick Moynihan is associate director of international research methods at Pew Research Center. Before joining Pew, he served as survey methodologist at the U.S. Department of State and as senior polling analyst at ABC News. He holds a doctorate in sociology from SUNY Stony Brook and has extensive experience in survey design, polling methodology, and election research. 

Richard Wike is director of global attitudes research at Pew Research Center, where he studies international public opinion on topics like democracy,...