Nearly 60% of Ukrainians think democratic system more important to their country than strong leader

Most Ukrainians believe that Ukraine is a democratic state, but compared to previous years they have changed their opinion and think that a democratic system is more important to Ukraine than a strong leader.

That's according to the results of two surveys conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), Ukrinform reports

According to a KIIS press release, in February 2024, respondents were asked to rate the level of democracy in Ukraine on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 meant that Ukraine is a complete dictatorship, and 10 - that Ukraine is fully democratic (an answer of 5 meant that Ukraine is equally democratic and authoritarian).

"The majority of Ukrainians - 57% - believe that Ukraine is rather or fully democratic (34% of them consider it almost or fully democratic, and 23% believe that it is rather democratic). Only 14% answered that Ukraine is somewhat or completely dictatorial. However, there are still 27% of respondents who believe that Ukraine is both a dictatorial and democratic country at the same time," the press release said.

According to sociologists, another question was "What is more important for the citizens themselves: that we have (a) strong leader(s) or that we have a democratic system?"

"In July 2022, at the request of Opora, KIIS asked the question what is important for Ukraine 'now,' and 58% answered that 'a strong leader is more important to Ukraine now than a democratic system,' and 27% pointed to the priority of a democratic system. We asked a similar question in October 2020, but without the emphasis on 'now,' that is, we asked what should be the priority in general. At the time, 54% preferred a strong leader and 31% - a democratic system... However, in December 2023, the majority of Ukrainians (59%) answered that a democratic system is more important to Ukraine. The share of those who believe that it is more important for Ukraine to have a strong leader is 32%," KIIS said.

KIIS conducted two surveys in December 2023 and February 2024 (in each survey, about 1,000 respondents from a nationwide sample of adults were interviewed over the phone) to find out to which extent Ukraine is a democratic country and a democratic system is a priority for Ukraine.