Gallup Voice of the People survey

In a recent post reporting the results of a Sunday Times poll, I bemoaned the lack of trust that we have in our politicians.

Yesterday Jeff Jarvis @ Buzzmachine found some more results in the same vein in an international study by Gallup.

In the wider scheme of things it looks like us Western Europeans actually do quite well on the leadership front!

The Gallup Voice of the People survey of 55,000 people in 60 countries was conducted for the World Economic Forum (a.k.a. Davos) and includes the following findings:

• Globally, 43% of citizens say that political leaders are dishonest; 37% say they have too much power; 33% say they are unethical; 27% say they are not competent.

• 52% of U.S. citizens say their politicians are dishonest.

• Africans “were the most critical of their politicians” with 81% calling political leaders disonest vs 60% of East Europeans (81% in Serbia).

• More than half in the Americas, 56%, call their politicians dishonest: 90% in Bolivia, 89% in Peru and Ecuador, 80% in Venezuela

• In Western Europe, the survey says, citizens are generally more positive about their polticians but not these: 76% of Austrians, 69% of Germans, even 50% of the Swiss say their leaders are dishonest.

Jeff quotes a lot more results here including a discussion of varying attitudes to safety and economic prosperity.

Gallup's site seems buggy so I will host a version here for now.