By CNN Philippines Staff, April 22, 2023; CNN Philippines

https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2023/4/22/sws-filipinos-satisfied-democracy.html

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 22) — A “record-high” 89% of adult Filipinos are satisfied with the way democracy works in the Philippines, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey found.

This is higher than the 78% satisfaction rating in April 2021, and 3% higher than the previous record of 86% satisfaction in September 2016, the SWS Fourth Quarter 2022 survey reported.

The SWS said that satisfaction with democracy was responsive to national elections.

“Satisfaction with the way democracy works had peaks of 70% in September 1992, 70% in July 1998, 69% in September 2010, 86% in September 2016, and the current record of 89% in December 2022, related to the successful presidential elections of 1992, 1998, 2010, 2016, and 2022, respectively,” it said.

Likewise, responsiveness was observed during the 2013 and 2019 senatorial elections, when 80% and 85% of respondents were satisfied with democracy.

In contrast, the SWS also pointed out that satisfaction with democracy fell to 44% in June 2004 after that year’s presidential election.

It was also determined that 60% of Filipinos were committed democrats and said “democracy is always preferable to any other kind of government.”

Meanwhile, 26% of respondents said that “under some circumstances, an authoritarian government can be preferable to a democratic one” (conditional authoritarians). On the other hand, 15% said “for people like me, it does not matter whether we have a democratic or a non-democratic regime” (indifferent).

The survey was conducted from Dec. 10 to 14 and interviewed 1,200 adults. The sampling error margins are ±2.8% for national percentages, and ±5.7% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao,” it said.