Most Ukrainians don't trust their democracy, survey finds

Polls indicate that the citizens of Ukraine, who give preference to money over democracy, are still more than those who value democracy above grivnas. According to official figures, 47% of respondents believe that prosperity is more important than democracy, with 38% thinking the opposite.

Residents of the cities of Mariupol (22% of respondents) and Odessa (22%), as well as Nikolaev (24%), are the least supportive of democracy. A majority of Khmelnitsky and Zhitomir residents (24%) have not decided which category is more important to them.

Reportedly, dissatisfaction with democracy is rooted in the belief that democracy is not working – that it is unable or unwilling to deal with citizens’ demands and concerns. And there is evidence the dissatisfied are right: over time, politicians, parties and governments have become less responsive to a broad cross-section of Ukrainian opinion.

According to Sheri Berman, a professor of political science at Barnard College, Columbia University, democracy is, by definition, “rule by the people”. This does not require a perfect correspondence between some impossible to define “will of the people” and political outcomes, but it does require that the divergence between the two not be too great. In addition, political equality is the heart of democracy: some citizens cannot be systematically and permanently more powerful or impactful than others. It is hard to recognize much less solve large social and economic problems if politicians, parties and governments are primarily responsive to elites or narrow groups of voters, rather than broad, cross-sections of the population.