Only 11 per cent of Australians report having any confidence in political parties. Over half - 63 per cent - report having ‘not very much’ confidence in political parties, and 27 per cent have no confidence at all.
In the 2018 World Values Survey (WVS), only 1 per cent of Australians had ‘a great deal’ of confidence in political parties.
10 per cent of Australians have ‘quite a lot’ of confidence in political parties, while 90 per cent have ‘not very much’ or ‘none at all’
Australians and Americans have a similar lack of confidence in political parties, with 86 per cent of Americans reporting they have little or no confidence in their parties
A lack of trust in political parties is common to many democracies. For instance, 75 per cent of German respondents say they have little to no confidence in political parties.
The World Values Survey asks a series of survey questions examining confidence in political institutions, providing an overview of attitudes across many countries. These items show that confidence in political parties is generally low around the world and that Australia is no exception. Only 1 per cent of Australians have ‘a great deal’ of confidence in political parties, while 90 per cent have ‘not very much’ or ‘none at all’.
However, this lack of confidence is not unique to Australia. Among other advanced democracies, 86 per cent of American respondents say they have little or no confidence in their political parties, as do 75 per cent of Germans and 76 per cent of South Koreans.
The highest confidence in political parties is found in non-democracies such as Russia, Thailand, Nigeria and Malaysia, where those saying they have ‘a great deal’ or ‘quite a lot’ of confidence in political parties represent 31 per cent, 35 per cent, 33 per cent and 31 per cent of respondents respectively. However, the lowest levels of confidence in political parties was also found in countries that are not democratic: only 2 per cent of Egyptian respondents and 6 per cent respondents in Bolivia report any confidence in their parties.
However, no more than 1 per cent of Australians have expressed a ‘great deal’ of confidence in their political parties since the question was first asked in 1981. Moreover, political parties are the institution in which Australians have the least confidence.