Politicians are voted the world’s least trusted people

Brian Whitaker
Thursday September 15, 2005
The Guardian
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Most people believe their government does not act according to their
wishes, a worldwide opinion survey shows. Lack of confidence in
governments is highest in the former Soviet bloc, where 75% say their
country is not governed by the will of the people, but similar views
are held by most Europeans (64%) and North Americans (60%).

The findings come from one of the largest international polls ever
undertaken. Commissioned by the BBC World Service, Gallup interviewed
more than 50,000 people in 68 countries, representative of the views
of 1.3 billion people worldwide. The main exclusions were China and
most of the Middle East, where government restrictions make polling
difficult or impossible. Overall, slightly less than half of those
surveyed (47%) felt that elections in their country were free and
fair. Confidence in elections was highest in Scandinavia (82%) and
South Africa (76%), and lowest in West Africa (24%) and the former
Soviet Union (25%).

Worldwide, politicians represent the least trusted occupation in the
survey, scoring only 13%. Religious leaders are the most trusted
(33%), followed by military/police leaders (26%), journalists (26%)
and business leaders (19%).

Asked which types of people they would like to give more power to, 35%
favoured “intellectuals” (writers and academics), followed by
religious leaders on 25%.

Behind the global figures there are wide variations between countries
and regions. There is a low level of trust in all types of leaders
throughout Europe. Almost a third of people expressed no trust in
military, religious, business or political leaders or journalists. The
media and journalists are particularly distrusted in Europe.

Japanese people have very little trust in authority figures – only 1%
have faith in military / police leaders and 3% trust religious
leaders. Only 4% of Ukrainians and 8% of Russians said they trusted
military or police leaders.

Confidence in religious leaders varies widely. They are most trusted
in Africa (74% against 33% globally), and in Nigeria 86% would give
them more power.

In the US 50% trust religious leaders and 40% would give them more
power.

Almost everywhere, people said family and friends were the most
important influences on their personal decisions, but religious
leaders were the most important influence for 13% in Africa and 12% in
North America. Elsewhere, religious influence was small or negligible.