Why Some Nations Are Warming to Technocracy

It's an interesting paradox that ordinary people asked to choose the best form of government don't necessarily choose democracy -- the only form structured around how they feel about such questions. A 38-country survey published by Pew Research Center on Monday shows most people the world prefer a technocracy, with a minority favoring a type of military or civilian authoritarianism.

Pew asked 41,953 people earlier this year to judge if five forms of government -- representative democracy, direct democracy, or rule by either experts, a strong leader or the military -- would, in their opinion, be good for their country. More than three-quarters said they liked representative democracy and two-thirds praised direct voting; none of the other options won an overall majority in the 38 countries. That should be enough to satisfy a pro-democracy optimist. The data, however, are more complex.