Fascinating study

The BBC has just published the findings of a multi-national poll to see how people view those in power in various countries. The results are startling.

Sixty-five percent of citizens across the world do not think their country is governed by the will of the people[.]

[O]nly 13% of people trusted politicians and only 16% thought they should be given more power.

Scarily:

A quarter felt more [power] should go to religious leaders - who are also seen as the most trusted group.

And, surprisingly, only 32% of people in the USA said that their religion was the thing that defined them. But 40% "would like religious leaders to be given more power".

In the US and Canada, 49% of people said they trusted religious leaders, compared to a global average of 19%.

At least Europe is an oasis of sanity:

In the 23 European countries surveyed, a third of respondents said they did not trust politicians or business, religious and military leaders, rising to more than half in central and eastern Europe.

Globally, only a quarter of those in the survey held people in authority in similar disregard.

Journalists in particular are held in poor esteem - only one in five Europeans trusts them, if the survey, or indeed this report of it, is to be believed.

Good to see the Beeb can maintain a sense of humour about it.