I'll start off by saying, this is a huge study: "more than 25 data sources, 3,500 country surveys, and 4 million respondents between 1973 and 2020 asking citizens whether they are satisfied or dissatisfied with democracy in their countries." ... so we can't realistically accuse it of being unrepresentative.
The results throw up a number of interesting points. Number one, I think it provides compelling evidence that Satoshi was right. Since the financial crisis, and the aftermath with banks being bailed out by weak/complicit governments and the general public paying the price, dissatisfaction with 'democracy' has soared. Economies are corrupt and failing. The bitcoin solution looks more relevant today than ever before.
... but this is the global trend. Dissatisfaction is not growing at the same rate in every country. Developed 'democracies' fare worst of all: "In the United States, levels of dissatisfaction with democracy have risen by over a third of the population in one generation." Many other big economies - Japan, UK, Brazil, Australia to take a few examples - are at or near all-time highs for dissatisfaction.
I think it is notable that in three of these big economies, we now have aggressively right-wing populist autocrats in charge - Trump, Johnson, Bolsonaro.
Democracy has been in trouble for decades, due primarily to growing levels of inequality. The financial crisis and its aftermath exacerbated the discontent. What we have seen since then is that the trust gap has been ruthlessly exploited by strongmen who have positioned themselves as outsiders who will represent the people against vested interests. Of course they will do no such thing. They are all staunch conservatives who serve the interests of the wealthy elite at the expense of the poor and the disenfranchised. It's the same old lies, with a different face - but the same different face everywhere, the same trick pulled in country after country: Modi, Erdogan, el-Sisi, Duterte, etc... the contempt for the public is so extreme that they feel they can repeat the process endlessly and we will do nothing about it.
The left rose in response, Sanders, Corbyn et al, but the powerful always have the media on their side (as they own it), and obviously money talks on social media as well, with Republicans, UK Conservatives etc ensuring the perpetuation of the status quo. In many countries, they have the military onside, too. So the establishment wins again.
Meanwhile, as the appallingly cynical exploitation of the system continues to develop, faith in democracy becomes ever more eroded. Have we reached a tipping point yet? Will we soon? Personally I don't think this can continue forever. We will hit a point where faith in democracy as represented in developed economies is so low that something will happen to change it. What that something will be is an open question. However, the case for bitcoin grows ever stronger.
Have a read of the report; there's a lot of interesting data in there.
