ANALYSING ATTITUDES TOWARDS DEMOCRACY IN PAKISTAN USING WORLD VALUES SURVEY

Abstract

This study aims at analysing people’s attitudes towards democracy in Pakistan. According to the World democracy ranking of 2019, Pakistan is at 108th number amongst 167 countries. This figure is discouraging. Identifying attitudes of people towards democracy is a key determinant of the state of democracy in the country. This paper attempts to empirically analyse people’s attitudes towards democracy in Pakistan in terms of support, understanding and evaluation. For this purpose, the data of latest and 4th wave of World Values Survey has been utilized. Data regarding political attitude, political interest, participation in elections, preference for democratic government and other socio-economic and demographic variables has been analysed using descriptive statistics and cross-tabulation. Results have shown that people of Pakistan have an equal acceptability for the army rule and democratic political system. People of Pakistan are not satisfied with the way democratic system has been developing in their country and yet most of the people in the sample aspire to live in a democratic governing structure. People’s attitudes towards democracy differ on the basis of income, education and gender. The study concludes that common citizens must be sensitized regarding the basic aspects of democracy and they must be given civic education.