{"id":16151,"date":"2013-05-10T09:15:22","date_gmt":"2013-05-10T14:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/pakistan-to-hold-historic-election-but-pakistanis-are-skeptical-about-democracy\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:31:53","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:31:53","slug":"pakistan-to-hold-historic-election-but-pakistanis-are-skeptical-about-democracy","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2013\/05\/10\/pakistan-to-hold-historic-election-but-pakistanis-are-skeptical-about-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan to hold historic election, but Pakistanis are skeptical about democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pakistanis will go to the polls Saturday in parliamentary elections that mark the first democratic transition from one elected civilian government to another in their country\u2019s 66-year history. But <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/Muslim\/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-religion-and-politics.aspx\">support for democracy<\/a> is thin in Pakistan, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/Muslim\/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-exec.aspx\">Pew Research Center survey of Muslims<\/a> around the world. By a nearly two-to-one margin (56% to 29%), Pakistani Muslims say they would prefer \u201ca leader with a strong hand\u201d over \u201ca democratic form of government\u201d to solve their country\u2019s problems.\u00a0This is among the lowest levels of support for democracy in the 37 countries and territories where the question was asked, as the chart on the right shows and a <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/Politics-and-Elections\/Pakistani-Views-on-Religion-and-Politics-as-Election-Nears.aspx\">new Pew Research infographic<\/a> illustrates.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition, most of Pakistan\u2019s Muslims <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/uploadedFiles\/Topics\/Religious_Affiliation\/Muslim\/worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-full-report.pdf#page=173\">doubt that they can have any real political influence<\/a>. Two-thirds of Pakistani Muslims either completely agree (53%) or mostly agree (13%) with the statement that \u201cpeople like me don\u2019t have any say about what the government does.\u201d Just 25% disagree, either completely (20%) or mostly (5%).<\/p>\n\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: right;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2013\/05\/PRC_Islamic_Political1.png\" width=\"438\" height=\"560\"><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><!--more-->The Pew Research survey of Pakistani Muslims (who make up 96% of the country\u2019s population, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/global-religious-landscape-muslim.aspx\">December 2012 Pew Research demographic study<\/a>) was conducted in November 2011, well before the current election campaign. A more recent <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/global\/2013\/05\/07\/on-eve-of-elections-a-dismal-public-mood-in-pakistan\/\">Pew Research poll<\/a>, conducted in March of this year, shows that most Pakistanis think the country is headed in the wrong direction, and 83% give an unfavorable rating to the incumbent President Asif Ali Zardari of the Pakistan People\u2019s Party.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More than a half dozen political parties are vying for seats in parliament, including some opposition parties that formally identify as religious or Islamic. In the survey of Muslims around the world, respondents were asked to <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/Muslim\/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-religion-and-politics.aspx#political\">compare Islamic political parties with other parties<\/a>. A plurality of Pakistan\u2019s Muslims say Islamic parties are about the same as other parties (39%). Just 10% say Islamic parties are worse, while 29% see Islamic parties as better than other parties.<\/p>\n\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: right;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2013\/05\/PRC_How-Much_Political1.png\" width=\"323\" height=\"585\"><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More broadly, many of Pakistan\u2019s Muslims think that <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/Muslim\/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-religion-and-politics.aspx#leaders\">religious leaders should have a role in politics<\/a>. About half say that religious leaders should have either \u201csome influence\u201d (27%) or a \u201clarge influence\u201d (27%) in political matters, while about a quarter say religious leaders should have \u201cnot too much influence\u201d (12%) or \u201cno influence at all\u201d (14%).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pakistanis will go to the polls Saturday in parliamentary elections that mark the first democratic transition from one elected civilian government to another in their country\u2019s 66-year history. But support for democracy is thin in Pakistan, according to a Pew Research Center survey of Muslims around the world. By a nearly two-to-one margin (56% to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[60,53,116],"bylines":[925,933],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[507,514],"research-teams":[517],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-16151","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-democracy","category-world-elections-2","category-world-elections-1","bylines-alan-cooperman","bylines-james-bell","formats-short-read","regions-countries-asia-pacific","regions-countries-international","research-teams-religion"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":365,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2013\/05\/10\/pakistan-to-hold-historic-election-but-pakistanis-are-skeptical-about-democracy\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Pakistan to hold historic election, but Pakistanis are skeptical about democracy","description":"Pakistanis will go to the polls Saturday in parliamentary elections that mark the first democratic transition from one elected civilian government to another in their country\u2019s 66-year history. 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