Less than half of South Africans currently believe that the country is “a full democracy” or “a democracy with minor problems” (48%) or are satisfied with its implementation (47%), according to the most recent Afrobarometer survey.
Both measures have declined significantly since the last survey in 2011, by 19 percentage points for perceived extent of democracy and 12 points for public satisfaction with democracy. Disaggregation of these results by key demographic factors shows that race continues to be a leading source of differences in citizen attitudes towards democracy.
As the annual State of the Nation Address approaches, these results suggest that increasing dissatisfaction with South Africa’s current leadership has spilled over into waning support for democracy itself.
For more information, see Afrobarometer Dispatch No. 71.
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