Trust in authoritarian governments is rising as trust in democracies falls, a new study found.
The Engelman Trust Barometer found that the three largest leaps in trust in countries’ institutions occurred in three authoritarian countries: China, the United Arab Emirates, and Thailand. The study also found that the three biggest falls occurred in advanced democracies: Germany, Australia, and the Netherlands. The United States and South Korea came close behind.
The meteoric rise in institutional trust in China and the UAE made them the two countries with the highest institutional trust at 83% and 76%, respectively.
“In many of the democracies studied, institutions are trusted by less than half of their people, including only 46 pts in Germany, 45 pts in Spain, 44 pts in the UK and 43 pts in the U.S. Moreover, no developed countries believe their families and self will be better off in 5 years time,” a summary of the data stated.
Of the top five countries with the most institutional trust — China, the UAE, Indonesia, India, and Saudi Arabia — three are outright authoritarian regimes, and the other two are flawed democracies. Of the five countries with the lowest amount of institutional trust — the United Kingdom, U.S., South Korea, Japan, and Russia — four are considered advanced democracies.
Perhaps most worrying for democratic countries, Chinese respondents showed the most trust in their government, with a whopping 91%. Every other Chinese institution recorded a double-digit increase in trust compared to last year, with the least trusted institution, nongovernmental organizations, being trusted by 77% of respondents.
In comparison, the most trusted institution in the U.S., business, was trusted by 49% of respondents. The average gap in trust between the U.S. and China was the largest it has ever been: a 40-point difference. The gap in trust in government in the U.S. and China was a full 52 points.
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Institutional trust wasn’t universal in authoritarian countries though. Russia remained at the bottom of the list at just 32%. Also worth noting is the inability to poll other authoritarian countries, such as North Korea or Venezuela.
