Information Related to "World News and Trends - Jan/Feb 2005"
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Global distrust of political leaders
Citizens of the world fear for their safety and security, perhaps primarily because they don't put much confidence in their political leaders. The Gallup International polling organization carried out a survey of some 50,000 people in 60 countries last year. This poll revealed that most nations distrust their politicians in a major way.
Worldwide, a disturbing 63 percent believe their politicians are dishonest. Regionally, Latin America tops the poll with a whopping 87 percent holding that view, followed closely by West Asia and Africa with 84 percent and 82 percent respectively. Germany is not far behind with a surprising figure of 76 percent, considerably above the average statistic in Western Europe at 46 percent.
In the United States and Canada the figure is 50 percent. On the positive side, the mistrust figure is very low in the Netherlands at 12 percent, which means that well over 80 percent of the Dutch trust their politicians to be honest. An incredible 97 percent of Singapore's citizens believe in the honesty of their leaders.
Particularly in the West, there are reasons for the belief that politicians are not only dishonest, but behave unethically. The absence of authority and the erosion of privacy in our e-mail age are two specific reasons.
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