Democracy and economic crisis

Although economic crises can serve to undermine authoritarianism, there are also a number of ways

in which democracy has been adversely affected by the economic and financial crisis. There has been

a decline in some aspects of governance, political participation and media freedoms, and a clear

deterioration in attitudes associated with, or conducive to, democracy in many countries, including in

Europe.

Nations with a weak democratic tradition are by default vulnerable to setbacks. Many nonconsolidated

democracies are fragile and socioeconomic stress has led to backsliding on democracy in

many countries. The underlying shallowness of democratic cultures—as revealed by disturbingly low

scores for many countries in our index for political participation and political culture—has come to the

fore.

Democracy Index 2011

Democracy under stress

19 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2011

TM

The impact of the economic and financial crisis on political trends has been most marked in Europe,

both east and west. Extremist political forces in Europe have not profited from the economic crisis as

much as might have been feared, but populism and anti-immigrant sentiment has nevertheless been

on the rise. Economic crises can threaten democracy, usually with a lag, through increased social

unrest. So far, social unrest related to the financial and economic crisis has affected about two dozen

countries.

The results of Gallup polls are largely mirrored in the findings of Eurobarometer surveys. Confidence

in national pubic institutions in western Europe—already low before 2008 in many countries—has

declined further since the onset of the crisis. Less than one fifth of west Europeans trust political

parties and only about one third trust their governments and parliaments. Levels of public trust are

exceptionally low in the eastern Europe-12 (the 10 new EU member states and EU candidate countries

Croatia and Macedonia). Less than 10% of people in this subregion trust political parties and less than

one fifth trust their governments and their parliaments. The proportion that is satisfied with the way

democracy functions in their countries fell from 40% in 2007 to only 33% in 2009.

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