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

That's according to the results of two surveys conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociogy (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 sociogists, 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 ora, 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.