As a new military-led government takes the reins in Cairo following Hosni Mubarak’s departure, our most recent issues polling is a reminder that bread-and-butter issues, as much as democratic reform, may have been instrumental in the popular uprising, and will be critical if public support for a new government is to be secured. Food prices, rather than free speech, appears to be the problem that most preoccupies Egyptians.
GlobeScan found last summer that Egyptians were more likely to have talked about rising food and energy prices than any other global problem over the last month (see map), and that Egypt was alongside Indonesia, Nigeria, and Mexico in seeing food and energy prices as among the top three most important global issues. In contrast, Egyptians ranked human rights abuses only as the ninth most serious global problem. With prices of food commodities across the world expected to soar further over months to come, can we expect to see Egyptian-style unrest spread across the developing world?
Finding from GlobeScan Radar Wave 2, 2010
This post was written by former GlobeScan Research Director, Sam Mountford.
