Capitalism, democracy lose favour

USA: Capitalism and democracy have lost popularity in the former Soviet republics of Eastern and Central Europe where many people felt better off economically under communism, a poll showed Monday.

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, research by the Pew Research Center showed the percentage of people behind the old Iron Curtain approving of democracy was markedly lower. The biggest change was in Ukraine where there was a massive 42 percent drop in support: only 30 percent of Ukrainians asked said they now approved of the move from communism to the multiparty system, down from 72 percent in 1991.

Eighty-five percent of respondents in East Germany supported the change to democracy, but even this was down six percent from 1991. The figure dropped 24 percent in Bulgaria, 20 in Lithuania, 18 in Hungary and eight in Russia.

Poland and Slovakia bucked the trend with four percent and one percent rises respectively.

“East Germans are the success story in terms of accepting democracy,” said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center.

Washington, Sunday, AFP