Nearly half of young Poles are skeptical about democracy - report

As many as 42 percent of young Poles (aged 16-26) are skeptical about democracy as a form of government, a study conducted by the TUI Foundation revealed. The survey looked at 6,000 young people from Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, and Spain. The most sceptical are from France (42 percent), Italy (45 percent) and Poland (42 percent). The most in favor of democracy are Germany (62 percent) and Greece (66 percent). In total about half (52 percent) of young Europeans consider democracy to be the best form of government all in all. For one quarter (26 percent) it is on the same level as other forms of government, a minority (9 percent) thinks there is a superior form of government. The study, which focused on the environment, identities, and attitudes of young Europeans towards Europe. On the question how young Europeans perceive themselves, strong differences between the respective countries prevail. In Spain (51 percent), Poland (50 percent), Greece (49 percent), and Italy (48 percent) almost half of the respondents assign themselves a transnational identity (i.e., being national citizen as well as European). Germany (46 percent) and France (42 percent) follow. In the UK (29 percent) the transnational description of the own identity is less common. An exclusively national identity (in the sense of „citizen of my country“) is stated especially in the UK (55 percent). In France (47 percent), Poland (45 percent), and Italy (44 percent) clearly more than four out of ten young people perceive themselves exclusively as citizens of their nation states, in Germany and Greece (37 percent each) at least every third. In Spain (27 percent) this perception is the least distinct.