Damning assessment of level of democracy

According to a survey by the authoritative Razumkov Centre, Ukrainians are registering a fall in the level of democracy.

The survey shows that Ukrainian do not rate the level of democracy in Ukrainian society highly. The Director of the Sociological Service, Andriy Bychenko says that the respondents were asked to assess the present level of democracy on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 meant that there was dictatorship in the country and 5 – that there was a full level of democracy.  The average score was 2.99, while 10.4% said they didn’t know.

Mr Bychenko added that in November the average score had decreased in comparison with September – October when the average was 3.07 (with 9.5% saying it was hard to answer), with the difference in the answers of the respondents being statistically significant.  In May this year, the average was 3.46 (9% saying it was hard to answer).

Assessment of the level of democracy (1 the worst)

Scale                           May                 September – October   November

1                                  4.1%                5.9%                            8.3%

2                                  11,8%              20,0%                          17.9%

3                                  30.7%              34.4%                          37.5%

4                                  26.0%              23.5%                          17.9%

5                                  17.9%              7.2%                            7.9%

The survey was carried out by the Razumkov Centre from 18 to 22 November 2010 in all regions, with 2001 respondents aged 18 and above asked. The margin of error is 2.3%