2LT Local News

CANBERRA, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) — Australians’ satisfaction with democracy is in decline, said a research report, which was published by researchers from Australian National University (ANU) on Tuesday as part of its annual Crawford Leadership Forum.

The research found that 14.2 percent of Australians who were surveyed said they were “very satisfied” with the country’s democracy — down from 23.4 percent in 2008.

Overall, 77.4 percent of people said they were either satisfied or very satisfied with democracy in Australia compared to 81 percent in 2008.

Nicholas Biddle, co-author of the study from the ANU Center for Social Research and Methods, told the forum that while democracy was still strong, it should not be “taken for granted.”

Respondents who were born in Australia were the least satisfied with democracy, the survey found, with those born overseas in an English-speaking country the most satisfied.

The survey found that education was the clearest predictor of a person’s satisfaction with democracy.

Of participants who had not completed secondary school, 67.5 percent were fairly or very satisfied with democracy compared to 84 percent of those with an undergraduate degree.