The state of Greek public opinion: contempt towards elites and pessimism for the future

In the week that Greece presented its latest austerity budget to international creditors, GlobeScan’s latest analysis of Greek public opinion bears out the assessment of Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who recently compared Greece’s situation to that of Depression-era America.

Just 20 percent of Greeks in our latest survey express any faith that the lives of their children and grandchildren will be better than their own. Furthermore, 77 percent feel that economic well-being has worsened over the last 20 years, while 71 percent feel the move to healthier and more equitable societies over the same period had gone backwards. Looking ahead, just 23 percent believe that economic well-being will improve over the next 20 years.

The despair that Greeks feel about the future is matched by their contempt for elites. Just 9 percent of Greeks believe that the rich deserve their wealth, and only 27 percent trust Greekcompanies to act in the best interests of society. Trust in multinational companies is lower still, at 21 percent, while fewer than one in five (18%) has any trust in the Greek government to act in the best interests of society.

These levels of social pessimism, resentment towards wealth and business, and anger toward the political class raise questions about how long the status quo and political centre in Greece can be maintained, especially in light of the rise of the Golden Dawn and SYRIZA groupings. With many of the options seen as most likely to contain the Eurozone crisis off the political table for now, New Democracy and Antonis Samaras will be lucky to avoid the fate of PASOK, whose share of the vote collapsed after they pushed this year’s bailout.

 

Finding from the GlobeScan Radar, Wave 1, 2012 

For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)

Increased Misgivings About NGO/Corporate Partnerships in Major Emerging Economies

As businesses seek ways to project credible messages about responsibility, many have been turning to partnerships with NGOs. This is not surprising—GlobeScan’s tracking indicates that public trust in NGOs continues to outstrip trust in business by a very significant margin, and most citizens in our global survey say that they would have increased respect for companies that choose to partner with NGOs.

However, GlobeScan’s latest monitoring of public sentiment on the issue suggests that the issue of partnerships is becoming more hazardous—for NGOs. A majority (53%) of those polled earlier this year across 23 countries say that their respect for a charity/NGO would go down if it chose to partner with a company. And this increased skepticism appears to be more pronounced in some major developing economies. Notably, the proportion in China who say they would lose respect for an NGO engaged in a corporate partnership has risen from 46% in 2003 to nearly four in five (78%) this year. There have also been significant rises in the proportions of such skeptics in India and Russia.

With the reputation of private business in these countries having been tainted by many high-profile corruption scandals, this may reflect public fear that NGOs’ independence and ability to act as rallying points for social change could be compromised. The rise in skepticism may also reflect misgivings about the coherence of existing corporate/NGO partnerships. On a recent GlobeScan webcast, SC Johnson’s Kelly Semrau stressed the importance of retaining “authenticity” when businesses and NGOs work together. These findings show this is also a preoccupation for consumers.

 

Finding from the GlobeScan Radar, Wave 1, 2012 

For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)

Developing world consumers more upbeat about economic impact of a Green Economy

It is often asserted that a responsible approach towards the environment is a luxury that emerging economies—with large proportions of their populations often remaining in poverty—are unable to afford, and that their top priority must be economic growth, whatever the cost.

However, GlobeScan’s and SustainAbility‘s most recent survey of global consumers, conducted in collaboration with National Geographic, shows that those in emerging economies are even more likely than their developed-world peers to reject the notion that environmental responsibility and economic prosperity are mutually exclusive.

The survey among consumers across 17 countries asked them to say whether they thought a Green Economy would be more or less effective than today’s economy in addressing a range of environmental and social challenges—and found that, globally, consumers thought a Green Economy would be more effective in all areas except for the creation of low-paying jobs.

Consumers in emerging economies are much more optimistic about the overall impact of a Green Economy than those in industrialized countries—particularly on “improving quality of life.” In those emerging economies, net expectations of the Green Economy’s effectiveness at “improving quality of life” are nearly 20 points higher than in developed economies. Similarly, the Green Economy’s effectiveness at “increasing long-term economic growth,” “reducing poverty,” and “creating high-paying jobs” is rated much more highly in emerging economies than in industrialized ones, as this chart shows.

Emerging-economy governments—notably in China—having taken a hard-line stance against tougher environmental targets in international climate negotiations in the past, but these findings suggest that they may be underestimating their peoples’ ability to take a long-term view.

 

Finding from a recent Regeneration Roadmap press release on Green Economy.  

For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)

Economic crisis obscuring citizens’ perception of increased prosperity

The ongoing economic crisis appears to be having a negative influence on the global public’s judgment of progress on economic wellbeing, according to our latest global polling.

When asked to evaluate the state of progress on societal challenges over the last twenty years, people across 22 countries were more likely to feel that environmental protection and creating healthier and more equitable societies had got better over that period than felt the same way about improved economic wellbeing, which nearly as many felt had got worse (36%) as felt it had improved (39%).

These findings suggest that current socioeconomic difficulties may be making it difficult for citizens to perceive the widespread increase in living standards over the last two decades, which has been particularly marked in middle-income countries such as Brazil, India and China. Not surprisingly, these are the three countries most likely to perceive an improvement in economic wellbeing over the period, while troubled European and North American economies, particularly Greece, are the least likely.

The findings are drawn from The Regeneration Roadmap, GlobeScan and SustainAbility’s collaboration aimed at generating a roadmap for sustainable development over the coming years.

 

Finding from The Regeneration Roadmap, 2012 

For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)

Chinese consumers use social media to learn about CSR

In the past few years the internet has become a widely used tool for Chinese people to access information that would otherwise not be available, such as critical information about the government, but also for consumers to learn about the social and environmental responsibility of companies. In response to the banning of global social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, Chinese internet users have instead developed their own widely used platforms for social networking and microblogging. China now boasts more than double the internet users of the USA, and more than 300 million Chinese consumers use social media according to a recent survey by McKinsey.

Chinese consumers use their newfound access to information to find information about the behaviour of companies; recent findings from GlobeScan’s 2012 Radar research programme shows that Chinese consumers are much more likely than consumers in other key markets to use social media to discover how responsibly companies are behaving on social, as well as environmental, issues. Compared to British or American consumers, the Chinese are twice as likely to claim they use social media to learn about CSR.

In 2011, several corporate scandals in China were uncovered and spread through social media, such as food safety problems of China’s largest meat processor Shuanghui, tainted Mengniu milk products, and a cover-up by authorities of the oil spill in the gulf of Bohai by the American company ConocoPhillips. As more scandals emerge, Chinese consumers are becoming more alert to corporate misbehaviour and increasingly eager to spread the word online.

 

Finding from the GlobeScan Radar, Wave 1, 2012 

For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)

China’s influence increasingly positive in Western countries

The newly elected French President, François Hollande, has recently stated that China’s relationship to the EU is fundamentally adversarial. This is just the latest of many calls from Western officials trying to address a perceived unfairness in the world’s trade system, an unfairness for which they consider China mainly responsible.

Yet, despite this official “hostile” rhetoric, GlobeScan’s 2012 Country Ratings Poll finds that the global public’s opinion of China has improved significantly over the past year. The poll asked respondents to rate the influence of 16 countries and the European Union. On average, in 21 tracking countries, 50 per cent of respondents rate China’s influence in the world positively, while 31 per cent consider it to be negative—a substantial improvement since 2011, with positive views increasing by four points and negative views dropping by the same amount. China has now overtaken both the EU and the US on this measure. This improving trend is remarkable in Western countries—although in some of them negative perceptions continue to outnumber the positive. In Australia (61%), Canada (53%), the UK (57%), the US (42%), and Germany (42%), the proportion of positive views has never been higher since tracking began in 2005. Opinion has grown more positive in Spain and France as well.

A subsample of respondents was asked to say which of four possible areas was most influential in their judgment—foreign policy, the economy (including products and services), traditions and culture, or the way people are treated. Of those who think Chinese influence is positive, 51 per cent say this is because of China’s economy, products, and services. While China certainly triggers some feelings of apprehension—the economy is also the top reason (30%) cited by respondents who hold unfavourable views of China—these positive results suggest that publics increasingly acknowledge that China’s economic power has become vital to the world economy.

 

Finding from the 2012 GlobeScan/BBC Country Ratings Poll

For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)

Africans More Upbeat Than Rest of World About Foreign Investment in the Continent

The recent wave of foreign investment in Africa—much of it from China—has started to transform the employment situation and infrastructure in parts of the continent. According toThe Economist, trade between China and Africa surpassed $120 billion in 2010, and it is claimed that China has given more loans to Africa over the past two years than the World Bank. Despite the controversy surrounding China’s new-found influence in the continent—with concern as to whether the benefits of the investment stay in Africa or are all repatriated to China—GlobeScan’s recent public attitudes poll for BBC World Service suggests that Africans themselves are much more relaxed about it than much of the rest of the world.

A narrow majority of those we polled across 22 countries at the end of last year saw foreign investment in Africa as a very or somewhat good thing for the continent, with around one in four holding the opposite view. However, the results indicate that some of the world’s major donor countries have misgivings. A majority of Germans (56%) and significant minorities of French (44%), Spaniards (40%), Britons and Americans (both 32%) think it is a bad thing.

In contrast, the four African countries in our sample all have very large majorities feeling that the foreign investment is a positive thing, with support highest in Nigeria (85%), but also very high in Kenya (75%), Ghana (72%), and Egypt (71%).

 

Finding from a February 2012 GlobeScan/BBC Poll

For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)

Spanish losing faith in economic system as crisis worsens

The worsening labour market and government debt crisis in Spain is leading Spaniards to re-evaluate their attitudes towards their current economic system, according to GlobeScan’s latest global public attitudes tracking across 22 countries for BBC World Service.

Globally, views of the fairness of the economic system and of free market capitalism have remained broadly stable since 2009, when GlobeScan last looked at this question. There has been some polarisation in attitudes about the free market, with an increase in the proportion of people who feel that the system works fine and does not need reform, but also an increase in those who view it as “fatally flawed”’ and feel a new economic system is required.

However, the change in Spanish attitudes over the past few years is strikingly at variance with this picture. The number of Spaniards who regard free market capitalism as “fatally flawed” has jumped from 29% in 2009 to 42% this year, while the view that economic benefits and burdens have not been fairly shared in Spain is now almost universally held (up from 66% in 2009 to 92% this year). In both cases, these proportions are the highest of any nation polled.

These figures suggest that the new right-of-centre Spanish government may face significant public opposition to austerity measures whose impact is likely to fall heaviest on the less well-off.

 

Finding from a 25 April 2012 GlobeScan/BBC Poll 

For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)

Families Cutting Back on Food in Response to Rising Prices

The rise in global food prices over the last year is having a major effect on consumption habits in the global South, according to GlobeScan research on behalf of Save the Children, with many reporting that they have cut back on the amount of food they buy for their family.

The price of staple foods such as beans, wheat and other cereals increased substantially during 2011, following severe weather in some of the world’s biggest food exporting countries, which damaged supplies. GlobeScan’s findings reveal that majorities in Peru (56%) and Nigeria (54%) and substantial proportions in Bangladesh (49%), Pakistan (40%) and India (29%) say that they have reduced the amount of food they buy for their family as a result of rising prices.

The last time global food prices peaked, in 2008, food riots resulted in the Indian subcontinent, Africa and Latin America, and GlobeScan tracking found that the price of food and energy was a greater concern than the ongoing economic crisis.

 

Finding from GlobeScan research conducted on behalf of Save the Children, 2012 

For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)

Water insecurity dominates Indians’ concerns about the environment

The potency of water as a political issue in the world’s major emerging economies was underlined again this week when it was reported that water levels had plunged in the Siang river in India’s north-east. Allegations were levelled that China—where water stress is also a major concern—had diverted much of the water on the Chinese side of the border, preventing it reaching farmers and residents who depend upon on it in the Indian state of Assam.

This controversy is not surprising, given the central importance that Indian citizens attach to water as an issue, according to Globescan’s global attitudes tracking. Our most recent data reveal that Indians consider fresh water shortages to be the most serious of a range of environmental problems, with nearly seven in ten (68%) rating them as “very serious”—up nearly ten percentage points since 2008. Furthermore, water pollution was cited this year as the second most serious environmental problem, with 59% rating it “very serious,” well ahead of problems like climate change (47%).

With the Indian economy registering its seventh consecutive quarter of slow growth, water insecurity, already an important concern, is likely to become increasingly central to the politics of this huge emerging economy.

 

Finding from the GlobeScan Radar, Wave 2, 2011 

For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)