Posted by RMS
on November 3, 2009, 6:09 pm
Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall the citizens of former socialist countries are becoming increasingly disillusioned with capitalism and Western-style democracy, a poll has confirmed.
The Washington-based Pew Research Centre surveyed around 8,000 people in Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Lithuania between August 27 and September 24.
Results showed that support for capitalism as an economic system has fallen in every single country compared to a similar 1991 poll.
In Hungary just 46 per cent said that they approved of the restoration of what pollsters termed a "free-market economy," compared to 80 per cent in 1991.
In Ukraine just 36 per cent approved, compared to 52 per cent 18 years ago.
At the other end of the spectrum, 82 per cent of those polled in the former German Democratic Republic backed the transition to capitalism, compared to 86 per cent in 1991. In the Czech Republic 87 per cent approved of the change in 1991, compared to 79 per cent today.
Only the Poles - 47 per cent - and the Czechs - 45 per cent - said that economic situations were better today than under socialism, and as many as 72 per cent in Hungary said that the opposite was true.
A clear majority of Russian citizens said that it is "a great misfortune that the Soviet Union no longer exists," while only one in three Russians disagreed.
Pew Global Attitudes Project associate director Richard Wike said that, while most eastern Europeans embrace western-style democracy and capitalism in theory, they find it hard to stomach in practice.
"They are frustrated with the way democracy is working in their countries. They see a gap between the way they want things to work and the way they see things are working," he said.
"We don't see people saying they don't want free speech, free press or competitive elections," he went on, before acknowledging that many people are "unhappy with how things are working out."
Mr Wike said Russian people "stand out in some ways in this survey" because "there is some nostalgia for the Soviet empire."
The poll was released one week prior to the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which will be marked on November 9 with celebrations in Berlin.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/82777
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