An international survey carried out by the market research firm YouGov on behalf of the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation found that public sentiment in 13 of 15 countries covered in the study strongly approves of the creation of a world parliament. With the exception of two countries, respondents who “strongly” or “somewhat” approved of the notion significantly outweighed those who oppose it.
It is often claimed that nationalism is on the rise again. But many people, often clear majorities, would support institutional moves towards building a global society. This poll confirms that they would endorse a global democracy that is empowered to deal with global challenges. Governments should no longer ignore this desire and potential.
On average, 60% of respondents leaned towards supporting “the creation of a new global parliament that represents every country in the world, where every country would be represented based on how many citizens it has, rather than its own national government representation to the UN”.
Only 22% on average leaned towards disapproval. Top support was recorded in Kenya where an overwhelming majority of 81% leaned towards approving of a world parliament with 52% voicing strong and 29% somewhat support. Only 17% disapproved and 2% answered they do not know, the lowest figure in this category registered in the entire poll.
Next on the list, in order of the percentage of those leaning towards support, are India (78% in favor and 10% opposed), South Africa (73% and 21%), Tunisia (71% and 13%), Indonesia (68% and 13%), South Korea (65% and 18%), Japan (63% and 13%), Turkey (59% and 17%), Argentina (58% and 20%), Germany (56% and 26%), France (53% and 27%), Brazil (50% and 24%) and Poland (49% and 25%).
At the bottom of the 15-country-poll are the United Kingdom (41% and 37%) and the United States (38% and 42%) which were also the only cases where more respondents “strongly opposed” rather than “strongly supported” the notion.
Andreas Bummel, Executive Director of Democracy Without Borders, said they have been running a campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assemby for over 15 years, the actual proposal of a world parliament is that of a two clhamber system. One chamber would continue representing the governments of member states while the other would be composed of elected parliamentarians. The parliamentary body thus would not replace but complement national government representation.
The public also endorses pragmatic first steps in the direction of a world parliament. A 12-country-poll released in June 2023 found that on average 62% supported the proposal of setting up a UN Parliamentary Network “to inform parliamentarians of the UN’s agenda and obtain their feedback on it”. At the time, the researchers concluded that the barrier to reforming global governance “is not popular opposition” but the reluctance of governments.
According to a UN General Assembly resolution adopted on 1 September 2023, the UN Summit of the Future is to approve of an “outcome document” which includes a chapter on “transforming global governance”.
According to Michael Bröning, head of the New York office of Friedrich Ebert Foundation, this year “the results were particularly remarkable and also astonishing in many respects”. “It seems remarkable that especially in times of crisis, global cooperation is attributed a particularly high value”, he commented.
