Jordan: 81 per cent of respondents support democratic principles - poll

AMMAN - Although a vast majority of Jordanians support democratic principles, many do not believe that citizens should have greater influence over the government’s decision making, according to the results of a poll on “Democracy and the Will of the People” released on Tuesday.

The survey, conducted by WorldPublicOpinion.org and supported and coordinated by the Centre for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan, revealed that 81 per cent of respondents agreed that the will of the public should be the basis of the government’s authority.

In addition, 71 per cent believe that the government should be selected through elections in which all citizens can vote, according to the poll.

Some 44 per cent of respondents said the will of the public should have a greater influence over the government, 27 per cent thought it should stay the same, while 17 per cent felt that the public should have less influence over government affairs.

When asked how much the Kingdom should be governed by the will of people on a 10-point scale (10 representing “completely”), respondents gave an average response of 6.6, the second lowest of all the countries polled and well below the average national response of 8.0.

In the same poll, Iranian respondents reported an 8.4 rating, followed by Egypt (8.3) and the Palestinian territories (7.6).

Asked how much the country is currently being governed by the will of the public, however, respondents gave the Kingdom an average 5.4 rating, one of the highest in all polled countries.

A majority of respondents, some 54 per cent, said they trust the government to “do the right thing most of the time,” making Jordan one of five countries polled, where the majority held this view.

Some 38 per cent of respondents said they “just about always” trusted the government to do the right thing, while 41 per cent said they only trust the government “some of the time”.

In the same survey, 84 per cent of Egyptian, 55 per cent of Palestinian and 48 per cent of Iranian respondents said they trusted their government to do what is right “most of the time”.

Jordanians were divided on whether the Kingdom is run by big interests or by the will of the public, split evenly at 47 per cent apiece.

A vast majority of citizens, 89 per cent, reportedly favour the Kingdom’s leaders paying attention to public opinion polls when making an important decision, while 8 per cent believe that public opinion distracts leaders from using their own judgement.

In comparison, 72 per cent of Egyptians favour their government taking public opinion into account, while 68 per cent of Iranians, 47 per cent of Palestinians and 42 per cent of Turks also share that view.

The study, conducted in 19 nations across the world, concluded that in every nation polled, the public supports democratic principles, while majorities of nearly every nation are dissatisfied with how responsive their governments are to the will of the people.

The poll of 17,525 respondents was conducted between January and March of this year by a collaborative research project involving research centres from across the world and managed by the Programme on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland.

By Taylor Luck, The Jordan Times