Most Ukrainians think it would be bad if Ukraine was governed by military

The number of supporters of a "military regime" in Ukraine has grown since the beginning of the full-scale war with Russia, but the vast majority of Ukrainians still dislike the idea of having such a government.

Source: Interfax-Ukraine news agency, citing a survey conducted by the Razumkov Centre’s Sociological Service on 23-31 May 2023 as part of the MATRA project funded by the Dutch Embassy in Ukraine

Details: The full-scale war has led to an increase in the share of respondents in Ukraine who consider a government ruled by the military, or a military regime, to be "rather good" or "very good" (up to 28% from 12% in 2017). However, the overwhelming majority (71%) of Ukrainians still consider a military regime to be a bad thing.

At the same time, 26% of respondents in Ukraine consider both the military regime and the democratic system to be good (91% of those who consider the system ruled by the military or military regime to be good also consider the democratic system to be good).

In other words, the military regime appears to be mainly seen as a means of protecting democracy in the context of military confrontation with the aggressor.

Over the past six years, Ukrainians’ assessment of the level of democracy in the country’s governance has been increasing. The average score that reflects people’s perceptions of how democratically Ukraine is governed has increased from 3.8 in 2017 to 5.1 in 2020 and 6.2 in 2023 (on a 10-point scale, where 1 means "not at all democratic" and 10 means "absolutely democratic").

Compared to 2020, the share of Ukrainian citizens who believe that the political system does not allow them to influence government actions has decreased from 34% to 28%. At the same time, the total share of those who believe that the political system "definitely" or "sufficiently" allows people like them to influence the government’s actions has also decreased from 17% to 12%.

In general, Ukrainians’ assessment of the extent to which they are able to influence the course of their own lives has not changed much over the past few years, remaining within the range of 5.8-6.2 points on a 10-point scale.

Reference: Sociologists interviewed 2,020 respondents aged 18 and older. The theoretical sampling error does not exceed 2.3%. Additional sample deviations may be caused by the effects of Russian aggression, especially the forced evacuation of millions of Ukrainian citizens.

The survey was conducted using a stratified multi-stage sampling with random selection at the first stages of sampling and quota sampling at the final stage (when respondents were selected in line with gender and age quotas). The sample structure corresponds to the demographic structure of the adult population of the surveyed areas as of the beginning of 2022 (by age, gender, and type of settlement).

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