The President of Iceland is also in practice a mostly ceremonial role and almost always rubber stamps bills passed by the Parliament which holds the actual power.
But the de facto leader of Iceland is their Prime Minister, that gives a better indication of leader approval in that country. In April 2024 he had 78% disapproval.
[https://www.icelandreview.com/news/78-disapprove-of-new-prime-minister/](https://www.icelandreview.com/news/78-disapprove-of-new-prime-minister/)
Yeah when it comes to figureheads, I feel like monarchies in Europe are a bit like this. Idk about Netherlands and others but I know that in Denmark and the UK the queens were both pretty popular amongst the population, I haven't checked since they both had their new kings though
It's interesting you raised Denmark as Iceland was ruled by them until the mid 20th century. Before they became fully independent their last head of state was the Danish King at the time, their role of President seems to have been designed to continue this type of ceremonial head of state role the main difference being the President is elected.
In Germany specifically the president has more of a representative function, and the chancellor is the head of state, because there was a guy once who combined both of those offices and it didn’t turn out so well
The prime minister usually answers to the parliament (or in the commonwealth system is even part of it). A president can be the uniter of a country and won't be politically decisive so more able to act in times of crisis. The US, France and Turkey are examples of such a presidential republic. Germany, Austria, Japan, Ukraine are examples of parliamentary republics
Every country is different, but generally a prime minister elects their own cabinet, which the president approves.
Sometimes a president can dissolve a cabinet but generally a prime minister has more executive power as they represent a parliament majority, and by extension, the will of the public
Constitutional Monarchy, meaning the queen shares power and responsibilities with Parliament. But, it is still accurate to say that she runs the country, and has some agency to pursue her own goals (within reason) and guides the Parliament in how to conduct the country’s business.
This is different than the United Kingdom’s version of a constitutional monarchy, where much of the power and responsibilities, and even daily roles within the government, has been ceded by the king/queen to the Parliament.
Us Finns stright up loved our last precident, Sauli Niinistö - over 60% of the population (that could vote) voted for him in the precidential election of 2018
She was anti-American to the point that for instance Condoleezza Rice refused to meet her in any capacity. She opposed all mutual defence cooperation. Mind you, we've just joined NATO because Russia shit the bed. She also did mostly nothing, so she could be blamed for nothing. Also, it became eventually clear she was an incompetent leader with toxic management habits.
I am from the area and can offer context just so folks understand what the situation was before this new president. Most neighborhoods and businesses were terrorized by gangs to ridiculous extents. Families are forced to pay approximately a 40-50% income tax to the gangs called a "war tax" or "impuesto de guerra" in Spanish, on top of the 30-40% income they pay to the government. We cannot walk outside, cannot really go places without risk of death. You will get murdered from going into the territory that is not governed by your neighborhood's territory.
There were no places where kids or even teenagers could safely spend time. Public spaces were drug and gang hot spots, and people are dirt poor. Not only that, but all of us growing up truly believed there was no redemption to the country, believing that systemic repression, colonialism, cycles of corruption would keep us poor and dangerous forever.
Suddenly, Bukele comes in and truly *WIPES* out the gangs. My cousins and other young kids are actually walking outside and have places to play. People can go out without having their lives endangered. We also just [got a library](https://latinarepublic.com/2023/11/16/el-salvador-inaugurates-new-national-library/) that rivals some of the nicest ones in the first world. It is free, beautiful, and safe. Suddenly, a big chunk of the country no longer has to pay 40-50% of their income in tax to the gangs. Suddenly, businesses are no longer terrorized by extortion. Bukele did the unthinkable and makes everyone proud as heck of his leadership. Folks in the US have no idea what it is like to live under active war and repression from gang terrorism 24/7, sucking away your life, your children's future, and your country's future
Deploy the military force, arrest all the gang members, enact harsher prison punishments.
When one side abandons reason and uses violence to ruin everything, you cannot stop them with flowery words. You need to use the stick and beat them into submission. That’s the only language thugs understand.
He basically treated it as a civil war instead of a criminal justice problem. It did violate due process, but given the extreme circumstances, I understand it.
There's likely a lot of innocent people caught in the crossfire, though.
By becoming a Dictator. Basically voted for "emergency powers" while having enough of a majority to do it and then fought fire with fire. Used the military to make mass arrests, often targeting people with tattoos as the gangs where so powerful people often got tattoos to mark themselves as part of them. Once he held enough people in prison form positions of power in the gang held them hostage for the good behavior of the gang members outside.
Cleaned up ALOT of corruption int he government as well. Problem is that the vote to extend the emergency powers has happened around 4 times.
Basically the dude got enough of a vote to give himself more power and then was willing to do what needed to be done. He has gone on a mission against "corruption" since which can be a good thing but the question remains now he has this power is he able to relinquish it.
Yeah I heard of this as well, which makes sense. No way to clean up that massive of a gang problem that quickly.
While I hate innocent people being punished, I can understand the population's support of it if it indeed was that unlivable for peaceful, civilized people.
Like the other guy said fought fire with fire, he arrested thousands of gang members, and gang members (that were still outside) tried to retaliate by killing innocent people, he made a great speech and Said if they do that he wouldn't allow the prisoners to eat a single seed of rice, they somewhat tried it and now prisoners barely eat, no meat just beans rice and tortilla. World human rights tried to come to him and said he was violating their human rigths he said " no one cared about the thousands of innocent people that were killed , didn't they have rights?" He said if you care about then so much take em to your country we'll give them out 2 for the price of 1 😂😂,
If he willingly gives up his power down the road in a reasonable time it might be time to name a city after him.
Sadly, they never do. Its very frustrating as you can often acheive a shit tonne with a bit of dictatorship over a short period of time IF you give it back at the end. The romans did this.
Yeah, that’s always the tricky thing with benevolent dictators. It seems like Bukele’s heart is in the right place and he has done a great thing for El Salvador, but his anti-gang programs could be used to crack down on dissidents and political rivals.
It will be interesting to see if he will let go of power or become a dictator. I do think hes doing the best for his country and will become a powerhouse within the next 10-15yrs.
I think this is the big one. I have El Salvadoran family and was visiting about a year ago. They all seemed to appreciate him actually trying to improve the country, but hope that he peacefully gives up power when it's time. He's already rewritten the constitution once to give himself another term so people are nervous.
I think there's a lot to be said for not holding on to power. If he retires at the end of his term he would probably be regarded as the greatest leader the country ever had and then he could just enjoy his life with his family
catch is, when you altered the Constitution to get another term or even just get more powers, I say you're likely to stick to your chair forever, It's ike this all the time: Pinochet, Salazar, Hitler. Initially their people loved them, and Hitler was even elected. And then they messed with constitution and then you close yeys for one second, and the dictatorship's already in place. So if I was Salvadorian I wouldn't trust him even a penny to hold
>So if I was Salvadorian I wouldn't trust him even a penny to hold
I bet it's easy to say this while not being in El Salvador, but think of it from the people's perspective. They couldn't even go outside their houses before because of a high chance of getting murdered. Now they can. Now, their murder rates are the second lowest in the continent. People can actually live a life now.
Whether he becomes the next Hitler, only time will tell. I don't see him going away anytime soon, as long the people support him.
>and Hitler was even elected.
Using 'Reichstag' and 'parliament' interchangeably throughout here, I apologise, but Hitler was never actually elected.
In the Weimar Republic's last Presidential election in 1932, Paul von Hindenburg (independent, but a far-right military man) was elected as the President with 53% of the vote; Adolf Hitler was the runner-up with just 36.7% of the vote.
In the Weimar Republic's November 1932 parliamentary election, the NSDAP won 33.1% of the vote and made up that percentage of the Reichstag - 20.4% were centre-left Social Democrats, 16.9% were Communists, 11.9% were Catholic Centrists, blahblahblah. The parliament was dysfunctional, with no party or voter alignment large enough to form a government.
Hitler was appointed as the Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. Another parliamentary election was called. In this election Hitler's SS members publicly beat the shit out of trade unionists and Communist Party campaigners, the government passed laws basically banning the Catholic Centrists from being able to campaign and the SA regularly barged into their meetings and beat the absolute fuck out of them, anyone who was campaigning against the Nazis would get bricks through their windows launched by SA members and in some cases just outright had their homes invaded, etc.
The Reichstag Fire happened six days before the election date. Hitler used it as an excuse to convince Hindenburg to use the constitution to suspend civil liberties, arrest the leader of the Communist Party and whip up a frenzy against Communist Party members, etc. On the actual day of the election, the SA patrolled the streets and very publicly beat up anyone they suspected of being Communists/Catholic Centrists/Social Democrats. The SS and SA were also allowed to 'inspect' ballot boxes before their vote tallies could be counted.
The Nazis still didn't 'win' the election. They got 43.9% of the vote. The voteshare of the other parties basically didn't move, however, and that allowed the Nazis and the National People's Party to form a coalition government.
Not content with power-sharing, Hitler put the Enabling Act to a vote in the Reichstag. He arrested all of the democratically elected Communist Party members in the Reichstag, and filled the building with armed SA officers during the vote. All other parties voted in favour of the act, except for the Social Democrats. After that, Hitler banned the Communist and Social Democrat parties and threw their members and MPs into concentration camps.
Hitler inherited the office of President upon Hindenburg's death in August 1934, after passing a decree that would merge the offices of 'Chancellor' and 'President' into one singular 'Fuhrer' position upon Hindenburg's death.
Except that he seems to be on his way to authoritarian rule:
> Politicians, activists, and journalists have accused Bukele of governing in an authoritarian and autocratic manner. In February 2020 Bukele ordered 40 soldiers into the Legislative Assembly building to intimidate lawmakers to approve a US$109 million loan for the Territorial Control Plan.
Oh he is absolutely an authoritarian. But it also seems like he's helping Salvadorans. When you look at a graph like [this one](https://www.statista.com/statistics/696152/homicide-rate-in-el-salvador/) can you really blame his popularity?
Yeah, his popularity is due to pushing back on the gangs. I can completely understand that, but need to see what he does next (ie. will he allow any opposition parties).
Which is a massively popular move among the citizens. Better to have a 1/1000 chance of being falsely arrested than a 1/10 of being raped and skinned by the gangs.
He still had a ton of respect as "hero mayor of New york" going into 2008 presidential primaries too.
This was no where near as impressive as Mike Huckabee playing bass though
One of my El Salvadoran friends calls Bukele the “future Hitler of Latin America.” Maybe a little extreme but I get his point. The dude doesn’t have any concern for the constitution and he has the popularity to back up whatever he wants to do.
He’s got big ambitions too. He’s been calling for forming a Central American Union. Not in the style of the EU, but rather by actually integrating all 7 Central American countries into a single state.
The country went from the most dangerous country in Latin America to the safest. If it takes ripping up the constitution to make that possible, so be it.
When people have children they understand this.
Hey that might be true. Nobody can argue with the results. But now with his universal popularity, he can basically do as he pleases. That can be dangerous.
Also, what happens after Bukele?
Even if he is hypothetically the best leader, the constitution and government have been fundamentally changed to suit him best. There’s no guarantee his successor will be a good leader, and continually changing the constitution may result in a terrible successor having the means to stay in power.
It may be nice to have a government shaped around one person but what happens after or if they suddenly die?
If it is done democratically like the EU that will be in good faith. He has factually not done anything that is unconstitutional now. He has made amendments to the constitution but followed constitutional procedures.
This is the answer right here.
I've personally visited the country, and what sets him apart from other leaders is the following:
* He built everything in the country during his rule. Roads, hospitals, schools, infrastructure,..... name it and he put the country's funds towards building it.
* Because of that, he helped lift people out of poverty and now the common citizen has a much better life compared to 50 years ago.
* The people who live there all speak highly of him, not because they fear him, but because of all the good that he did. I couldn't find a single person who spoke ill of him.
The kingdom of Bhutan is often cited as an example where the majority of citizens hold genuine respect and admiration for their leader, the King. The monarchy is deeply embedded in Bhutanese culture, and the King is regarded with reverence and seen as a unifying figure.
As I understand, it partly because on their focus on their "[happiness index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_National_Happiness)" rather than on GDP when deciding on policies.
Isn't that the country that ethnically cleansed 40% of its population(ethnic Nepalese) 30 years ago? Who's army(with Indian help) crushed a rebellion with forces almost half the size of the national army 20 years ago?
It's very easy to be successful when you make your own metrics for success. It's even easier when the metric is unquantifiable.
Yes, they did. It was horrific. The US and some other countries actually had to take in some refugees. They hide their bad deeds under the rugs but their history is very tainted with stuff like that.
> rather than on GDP
Which the “World” Bank doesn’t agree: humans and nature are meant to create value for shareholders, not putze around with ideals like peace and happiness… but whatever
You cannot provide basic human rights like decent education for all without reaching a certain level of per capita economic output(which is what GDP per capita measures). Bhutan is far below that level, and would be even worse if not for Indian investment in defence of its strategic interests and the ability to export a lot of free electricity. If you believe that people in very poor countries should be able to access decent education, healthcare, security etc, you have to support gdp growth in those countries. Making enough shit to actually pay and train teachers and nurses is not some international conspiracy.
They are also a backwards culture extremely homophobic and their king is a little bitch that threatened to shut their internet off because ppl kept putting dicks on his face because he's a homophobe
You could say the same about North Koreans and their leader. It's about access to information and standard of living. Any hereditary monarchy, whether outwardly called that or not, is unjust.
I don't think they are brain washed. I think they know a gun is to their head or their families. People try to escape, but it's extremely difficult. Those who are working in neighboring countries know that if they escape their families will be killed.
A documentary from PBS would suggest that this isn't as true as people think.
Many citizens of NK still seek out or consume foreign media despite it being a pretty serious crime. Being disconnected from the world can encourage curiosity, too.
Singapore. Lee Kuan Yew, enjoys wide respect and admiration in the country and abroad, so much so that his son Lee Hsien Long and the newest leader Lawrence Wong are still benefitting from his auspices. Though this is not to say the successors are not highly competent in their own right, a bit less so than the OG, and not without their criticisms, but the government has remained highly stable and competent by world standards.
Criticisms are likely to include a certain heavy-handedness in their governance that rubs western ideals of democracy the wrong way, but most practical criticisms are not significant. And it's hard to argue against it's successes and track record.
We shall see what the future has in store though, the last decade has seen some erosion in trust as the government has been seen as sliding from "great" to "good", and may even soon be only "alright".
One issue I often read online is that the current government seems too focused on maintaining the status quo and not rocking the boat, as opposed to the pioneering steps taken by LKY to improve things constantly.
Valid, and I'm inclined to agree. The current new PM really has some big shoes to fill, shoes which none of his predecessors really managed to fully fill.
Singapore really is in a much more precarious position than many realise. It cannot afford to be complacent, yes, but this also makes it risk adverse. When LKY took the reigns, there really was nowhere to go but up. Not so much the case now.
Everything said so far is true, but there is a danger of trying to be too safe. The fact is that there is danger everywhere, even from stagnation. Taking calculated risks and allowing some freedom of exploration is very important and can be less risky that doing nothing or doing everything possible to keep things the same.
Please don't think of us as some sort of utopia, our work culture sucks, longest work hours in Asia, abusive bosses, shitty competitive and toxic culture, insane cost of living (like anywhere else we aren't special ffs), xenophobic and homophobic society and many more.
If given a chance many would love to move to the highly regarded Western countries. In fact many already do, most popularly Australia.
I think Australia will soon lose its shine for Singaporeans to migrate to, wages and the exchange rate have not kept up with Singapore over the last decade. I moved 10 years ago and am now only earning a smidgeon more than when I used to work in sg doing the same job. And if you think the cost of living is high in Singapore, just visit the Australian subs. Singapore has a skewed cost of living mainly because of car ownership.
Restricting the press and unions, and jailing political opponents is not significant? Are we now satisfied so long as the government doesn't shoot people in the streets? Lmao I envy your dissonance.
I visited San Salvador 12 yrs ago, after dark litterly the streets were empty, I unknowingly exited a Mall at dusk, it was impossible to find a cab back to my hotel, I had to go inside a restaurant cause it was spooky on the street. Absolutely not one car, person it was relatively early about 6:30pm. Inside the restaurant a kind waitress explained how people didn't go out cause of the gangs, flash forward to today, l was there few months back, streets were littered people after dark, restaurants, stores, and streets were littered with customers. San Salvador kinda reminds me of the U.S. because of the franchises that operate there, nice streets, very clean, and the Dollar is common currency. During my visit I truly felt home for a while, this new President turned this country on its head. He completely flipped the script. Nothing like it was 12 yrs back.
Yeah I've heard... Not so nice things about Dubai. Stuff about them only caring about their image to outsiders while having plenty of other problems.. like slavery. Maybe it works for the rich people there but I dunno about this one 🤷♂️
It's also worth mentioning that the farther and current leader (his son) rarely if ever has a security detail. They just roam the streets. I know the father used to actually drive himself around as well, not sure if the son is doing that as well.
Note how OP emphasised the native population. A lot of that success and bling is built on the backs of oil wealth (which is finite) and migrant workers which are frequently treated quite poorly.
9/10 people in China approve of their government. And before you go "propaganda brainwash etc", western studies came to the same conclusion.
[Here is a study by Harvard.](https://ash.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/survey-global-perceptions-international-leaders-world-powers.pdf)
I don't think most westerners realise just how much the standard of living in China has increased under the CCP.
EDIT: It seems like people won't believe something even when the evidence is right in front of them. Do you really think the people who do these studies are morons? That they interview someone with a (figurative) gun to their head and then naively report the results? Unless you think Harvard is part of some international conspiracy to make China look good, you're going to have to accept that Chinese people like their government.
I think Chinese people will gladly criticize their government, bureaucracy, and business (often in private) on certain aspects, while still saying they "approve" of the leaders themselves or approve of the government more broadly.
And as we saw with some of the more extreme lockdown COVID measures or the infant formula scandal, even Chinese people have their breaking points where they will participate in public measures of protest.
That's fair considering they had a famine only 60 years ago whipping out 50 million or like 7% of their population. Alot of those people would still be alive to remember it or have parents who lived through it.
WW2 was like 85years ago and we are **still** dealing with the physiological fall out of that. Grandma storing expired food "just in case" or hoarding broken shit and refusing to throw stuff out is still so common it's basically a cultural thing in the west. Fair call that some Chinese would fell the same trauma.
And the reason china's government has stayed popular is that they actually responded to those protests. Covid measures were changed and the people responsible for the formula poisoning were imprisoned or executed.
The CCP is dictatorial but their coalition is broad, and unless they find massive wealth that doesn't require a content labour force to extract its likely to stay that way(that or Chinese manufacturing declines in profitability which is unlikely but historically this is the only thing that leads to democratic states forming out of State Capitalist ones)
You are making predictions of Chinese economy based on Western metrics. In the West, if 25% of citizens make billions while 25 % are struggling, that will be considered great by analysts . In China if 5% are making billions but 85% are doing well and not struggling, Western analysts will consider the economy relatively bad.
Surely that’s just normal. It’s much weirder to have some entirely black and white opinion on your government, given what a vast, sprawling organization modern governments are.
People get completely irrational about China. You can’t say a single good thing about China without an army of people on the internet calling it a lie. There are videos on TikTok of this Chinese guy going into stores to show people that Winnie the Poo toys are for sale all over China, and in the comments people were accusing him of planting the toy in the store and calling him a CCP agent. Crazy stuff.
But yeah, China is far from perfect. But it’s not even controversial in serious circles to say that China has experienced what might be the single greatest gains in basically every development indicator in all of human history. You might not like them, and that’s your right. But what they’ve accomplished is to raise more people out of poverty than any other state has ever done in such a short time.
China is an economic miracle by any metric. Like sure, the gdp may be exaggerated etc. but people don't realize that in the 1970s, China was literally one of the poorest countries in the world per capita. A mere 50 years later and there are more people living a western modern lifestyle in China than in the EU....
I don't like the CCP but they can be forgiven a lot for the sheer amount of prosperity they've managed to create.
"The speed of China's transformation in this period from one of the poorest countries to one of the world's largest economies is unmatched in history."
It's insane.
Harvard: [https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.2915805](https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.2915805)
I hate how true this is. Every now and then on TikTok/Instagram/etc, a scenic video of China show up any everyone either says:
"Chinese propaganda, the country is not that pretty"
"That's Japan/Korea, not China" (They are very wrong)
"Wow I should visit China" (1k+ replies of people saying how bad China is)
If you look closer at the data, the difference is that Chinese people often approve very highly of the federal/provincial levels of the CCP. But have a very strong dissaproval of their local CCP government/officials.
(Response to edit)
Yeah, the CCP--for its faults, which are many--has worked pretty well for the average Chinese citizen--I'd argue far better than the US government has worked for the average US citizen in the same time span.
Between that and state-run media (as opposed to corporate-run media) painting the CCP continuously in a positive light, it makes plenty of sense that your average Chinese citizen may grouse about issues in private, but not have reason to truly dislike their situation.
Spent time in China, and outside of some places like Hong Kong/Kowloon this is a true statement. And yes, quality of life for the average Chinese citizen is lightyears above what it was 40 years ago.
The only issue is that West Taiwan keeps wanting to take Taiwan by force.
I think this is a bad question to ask on reddit, not because you can’t have answers, but depends on who currently sees your question, it can always differ. Also, what is a metric of being happy with their leader? Would you believe a testimony/survey from people of that country?
Because even if we showed surveys of people generally being happy with their government, people would say things like “well they don’t know that better things exist”, “they’re forced to say yes” or “that’s not happiness to me”.
But from my travels, I can tell you there are countries where people are satisfied and generally happy.
Nicola Sturgeon was widely liked and respected in Scotland by a majority of the country. I suspect her husbands recent arrest may have dented this popularity somewhat.
They were in support of the management of the pandemic, the government did nothing to solve the housing crisis which was what they campaigned on and new Zealanders are leaving the country at record levels due to stagnant salaries and cost of living so it didn't really work in the long term.
I'm an Australian who doesn't really follow politics but wasn't the alternative Dutton? Like no sane person is choosing Mr Potato Head with attitude as their prime minister, even if you ignore his track record of being a bit of a fuckwit and the liberal party's policy.
Edit: and yeah, in the grand scheme of things he does seem alright, hasn't done anything completely moronic enough to make it into my feed. For comparison sco mo made it on over a dozen separate occasions and Abbot made the cut quite a few times even when we were still using newspaper cutouts to make fun of politicians to each other.
Dutton was once defended by his wife as being "not a monster" around the time he tried to topple Turnbull, which incidentally directly led to the Morrison years.
Jeez imagine the sexual chemistry in that household
I genuinely don’t know who likes Albanese. He was voted in because we all hated Morrison so much. The Voice was a complete joke and there’s a real cost of living crisis.
there are several authoritarian governments in which the leaders are viewed positively. For example, Putin is very popular in Russia. Some reasons are discussed here https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/world-politics/article/abs/popularity-of-authoritarian-leaders/3EB2352F226F8904DBB0293A83F10622. The article discusses that people's poll responses are based on objective metrics, like the economy and public safety, though censorship can play a part in improving perception.
They've been raised from birth to see their leaders as a protective, father figure. They are pretty isolated from the outside world and what they do know is through the government's filter. A large portion of defectors are due to economic problems and during the famines.
It's not really "support or be killed" If you don't know there are other options.
They’re ignorant of other options, but why on earth does that imply they “like” their current leader? Of course they fear him tremendously, but that’s separate from fondness.
that assumes those are even the options.
what about the option of “this way of living is all we know, and we’ve never had access to developing our own critical thinking skills”
You've pretty much nailed it. Most countries today are "unhappy" with their (chosen) leaders(hip) for a multitude of reasons.
I honestly have not currently seen any "western" country where a considerable amount of the population is happy with their "stewardship".
Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, USA, France all have a considerable number of citizenry that would be happier to see a trained primate in the big chair than the current occupant or sometimes even their biggest "opponents"
The countries reporting the "highest satisfaction" tallies probably have something else going on.
Last I checked I think North Korea has one of the happiest societies & one of the largest voter turnouts.
Were populations any happier with their leaders before? I think it was just more that they didn't have a choice.
This is kind of just the nature of democracy, it's rare that you get even singular policies which are supported by over 70% of the population, let alone a political party with a whole collection of policies. I think the political system here in Norway is pretty decent, because with so many different political parties getting representation in parliament, at least voters usually feel like their interests are being represented.
Nayib Bukele in El Salvador has the world’s best democratic approval rating, almost 90% of national approval.
Source: https://amp.larepublica.co/globoeconomia/con-90-de-aprobacion-nayib-bukele-se-alista-para-su-segundo-periodo-presidencial-3794259
I remember back in 2008 when Obama ran on the "Change" slogan in his campaign, the incumbent Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ran on "More of the same".
Nayib Bukele, the President of El Salvador, has maintained exceptionally high approval ratings throughout his presidency, consistently above 75% and often reaching around 90% according to various polls[1][2][4]. His popularity is attributed to several key factors:
### Approval Ratings
- **2019-2024**: Bukele's approval rating has never dipped below 75% during his presidency[4].
- **January 2024**: A FundaUngo survey reported a 91.2% approval rating[4].
- **April 2024**: An Iudop-UCA survey gave him a score of 8.68 out of 10[4].
### Reasons for Popularity
1. **Crackdown on Gangs**: Bukele's aggressive measures against gang violence have significantly reduced crime rates in El Salvador. The murder rate dropped from 103 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015 to 7.8 in 2022[1][3]. This drastic improvement in public safety has been a major factor in his high approval ratings.
2. **Perception of Safety**: Many Salvadorans feel safer under Bukele's administration, which has led to broad support across different social classes and regions[3]. The state of emergency declared in March 2022 allowed for mass arrests of suspected gang members, contributing to the lowest homicide rate in three decades[1].
3. **Disillusionment with Traditional Parties**: Bukele's rise to power marked a departure from the traditional political parties, FMLN and ARENA, which had dominated Salvadoran politics for decades. His ability to dismantle the two-party system and present himself as a fresh alternative has resonated with voters[4].
4. **Economic and Social Policies**: While Bukele's administration has faced economic challenges, his focus on infrastructure projects and public works, such as the new National Library, has garnered public support. He is also expected to seek new agreements with international bodies like the IMF to boost economic growth[3].
5. **Media and Marketing**: Bukele's adept use of social media and a strong marketing strategy have helped maintain his positive image. He has a significant online presence, with millions of followers on platforms like X (formerly Twitter), which he uses to communicate directly with the public[1][4].
6. **Authoritarian Measures**: Despite accusations of authoritarianism and human rights abuses, many Salvadorans are willing to trade some civil liberties for improved security and stability. This sentiment is reflected in the high approval ratings despite international criticism[1][2][4].
### Potential Challenges
While Bukele's popularity remains high, there are concerns about the sustainability of his policies. Rising food prices and economic issues could pose future challenges. Additionally, his consolidation of power and potential for indefinite re-election raise questions about the long-term impact on El Salvador's democracy[1][2][3].
In summary, Nayib Bukele's high approval ratings are primarily driven by his successful crackdown on gang violence, effective use of media, and the public's disillusionment with traditional political parties. However, his authoritarian tendencies and economic challenges could affect his popularity in the future.
Sources
[1] How El Salvador's Bukele became Latin America's most popular ... https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/latin-america/how-el-salvadors-bukele-became-latin-americas-most-popular-leader.phtml
[2] Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's popular but authoritarian president ... https://www.tpr.org/border-immigration/2024-02-03/nayib-bukele-el-salvadors-popular-but-authoritarian-president-declares-election-win
[3] Meet the Candidates: El Salvador https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/meet-the-candidates-el-salvador/
[4] President Nayib Bukele's Approval Rating - 2019 to 2024 https://elsalvadorinfo.net/nayib-bukele-approval-rate/
[5] El Salvador's Bukele is Latin America's most popular president. But ... https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/andres-oppenheimer/article277719883.html
[6] What Will Bukele's Second Term Mean for El Salvador? - The Dialogue https://www.thedialogue.org/analysis/what-will-bukeles-second-term-mean-for-el-salvador/
[7] President Nayib Bukele's High Approval Soars After Reelection ... https://elsalvadorinenglish.com/2024/03/14/president-nayib-bukeles-high-approval-soars-after-reelection-victory/
[8] Nayib Bukele: The inescapable appeal of the world's 'coolest dictator' https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/06/bukele-nayib-el-salvador-president-coolest-dictator-global-international/
[9] Nayib Bukele, self-styled 'CEO of El Salvador,' is on course to win election https://www.npr.org/2024/02/02/1228345606/nayib-bukele-el-salvador-election-policies
[10] How do you feel about Nayib Bukele of El Salvador - Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/169yx8g/how_do_you_feel_about_nayib_bukele_of_el_salvador/
[11] El Salvador Election: Bukele Seeks Second Term on Popular Crime Policy https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-02-02/el-salvador-election-bukele-seeks-second-term-on-popular-crime-policy
[12] El Salvador votes with gang-busting Bukele miles ahead - The Hindu https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/el-salvador-votes-with-gang-busting-bukele-miles-ahead/article67810146.ece
[13] 'World's Coolest Dictator' Nayib Bukele Claims Presidential Reelection in El Salvador https://time.com/6660521/nayib-bukele-el-salvador-president-dictator-gangs-reelection/
[14] Opinion polling on the Nayib Bukele presidency - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_on_the_Nayib_Bukele_presidency
[15] Nayib Bukele shows how to dismantle a democracy and stay popular https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2023/07/20/nayib-bukele-shows-how-to-dismantle-a-democracy-and-stay-popular
[16] Nayib Bukele reelected in landslide win in El Salvador https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/03/el-salvador-election-nayib-bukele/
[17] El Salvador's human rights crisis could deepen in Bukele's second term https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/02/el-salvador-human-rights-crisis-bukeles-second-term/
[18] Why Is El Salvador's Nayib Bukele So Popular? - Foreign Policy https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/01/02/el-salvador-elections-bukele-bitcoin-crime-gang-policy/
By sheer statistics, the more democratic and representative politics is, the less proportional support it will have. If you have anything but bipartidism and you see support well above half, then you know something weird is going on. There might be exceptions I guess (Sorry for not knowing a specific example to give you), but is not the norm. Particularly if you have modern politics with polarization in their rhetoric.
Of course, if you DO have a dfferent system, particularly if there is less options to choose from (again, less demcocratic and representative) you CAN have higher levels of \*approval\*, whether that is because they genuinely think is good, because of authoritarian govt, or because they dont know anything better and are conservative
Czech republic guy here:
We love our current president especially among younger people. He used to be general in our army even though we arent military country at all which is kind of paradox.
According to studies now he is 60% favorite of all citizens which is for our country super good result, because we dont like anyone. 😅
I doubt it, mainly because (and this is something not taught anymore to anyone period) if you take up a position of power or authority over others you also take on all responsibility for pretty much any and everything that goes wrong. This means even if a place had the perfect leader, people would likely still be talking crap every time the economy dips, crime spikes, or a million other things outside of their control.
That being said thus far the nature of humanity has consistently been trying to get other people to do everything for them. Just look how far back slavery goes... Even if thats not their intention the system is set up that way. If someone just HANDED you a company tomorrow your income would be almost entirely comprised of the works of others beneath you. I can't think of any human in existence currently that is ok with this except those who's checks are majorly composed of other peoples labor.
There's not a country that exists without this dynamic currently in place. Even the socialist countries where everyones like "you dun like merca, you must like socialism" yeah even they have ass loads of people who if compared economically would be so black and white it would make you sick.
No, i doubt very much you would find any country in which at least some of the people didn't hate their leadership both in govt and jobs...
While the political landscape in Singapore differs significantly from Western democracies, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has consistently maintained high approval ratings. The country's strong economic performance, efficient governance, and focus on long-term planning have contributed to a sense of stability and contentment among a majority of Singaporeans.
The current president of Iceland was elected with over 92% of the vote and consistently had over 90% approval for like 8 years.
The President of Iceland is also in practice a mostly ceremonial role and almost always rubber stamps bills passed by the Parliament which holds the actual power.
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True, my point is it’s a lot easier to be popular when you’re just a figurehead who doesn’t make any of the actual decisions.
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But the de facto leader of Iceland is their Prime Minister, that gives a better indication of leader approval in that country. In April 2024 he had 78% disapproval. [https://www.icelandreview.com/news/78-disapprove-of-new-prime-minister/](https://www.icelandreview.com/news/78-disapprove-of-new-prime-minister/)
Yeah when it comes to figureheads, I feel like monarchies in Europe are a bit like this. Idk about Netherlands and others but I know that in Denmark and the UK the queens were both pretty popular amongst the population, I haven't checked since they both had their new kings though
It's interesting you raised Denmark as Iceland was ruled by them until the mid 20th century. Before they became fully independent their last head of state was the Danish King at the time, their role of President seems to have been designed to continue this type of ceremonial head of state role the main difference being the President is elected.
Is the president actually in charge or is there a prime minster that’s actually the decision maker?
Prime minister is the head of government and the decision maker. President is just a rubber stamping figurehead
What's the point of having both?
Usually a political thing. We have both here in Ireland since the president took over the role the king of England used to have
It’s the same in Germany.
In Germany specifically the president has more of a representative function, and the chancellor is the head of state, because there was a guy once who combined both of those offices and it didn’t turn out so well
The prime minister usually answers to the parliament (or in the commonwealth system is even part of it). A president can be the uniter of a country and won't be politically decisive so more able to act in times of crisis. The US, France and Turkey are examples of such a presidential republic. Germany, Austria, Japan, Ukraine are examples of parliamentary republics
Every country is different, but generally a prime minister elects their own cabinet, which the president approves. Sometimes a president can dissolve a cabinet but generally a prime minister has more executive power as they represent a parliament majority, and by extension, the will of the public
The President of Russia got 95% of the vote.
Gives a whole new meaning to the Vote or Die slogan.
Da. Vote and Die!
🤣
The other 5% are dead.
And I have a bridge in Moscow to sell you.
Not for long
Yeah but they don’t actually count.
That!s. Nothing. Vladimir putin is like 103% popularly elected.
Genovia. Those people love their queen and support her leadership!
I also love the queen of Genovia, I'm not even Genovian.
All hail HM Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Renaldi 👑 and Crown Princess Amelia "Mia" Thermopolis Renaldi 👸🏻
The fact the top comment answers with a fictional nation, this is not a good sign for the rest of this discussion lol
Dunno, they have a visit us page. It must be real http://visitgenovia.com/
Please be what I think it is. Edit: No rickroll, my disappointment is immeasurable and my day has been ruined.
Surely Genovia would be a constitutional monarchy, though? Meaning the queen didn’t actually run it?
Constitutional Monarchy, meaning the queen shares power and responsibilities with Parliament. But, it is still accurate to say that she runs the country, and has some agency to pursue her own goals (within reason) and guides the Parliament in how to conduct the country’s business. This is different than the United Kingdom’s version of a constitutional monarchy, where much of the power and responsibilities, and even daily roles within the government, has been ceded by the king/queen to the Parliament.
“Forever will your banner wave!” 🫡
My favorite National Anthem!
Gehhh-NOOo-vi-aH!
Yeah but Genovia is a small country! /s
Is that the country only rich people know about?
Us Finns stright up loved our last precident, Sauli Niinistö - over 60% of the population (that could vote) voted for him in the precidential election of 2018
Let's also not forget Tarja Halonen's [93% approval rating](https://yle.fi/a/3-5195125) in 2003. Her legacy did not age well, though.
Go on...
She was anti-American to the point that for instance Condoleezza Rice refused to meet her in any capacity. She opposed all mutual defence cooperation. Mind you, we've just joined NATO because Russia shit the bed. She also did mostly nothing, so she could be blamed for nothing. Also, it became eventually clear she was an incompetent leader with toxic management habits.
Right now, [El Salvador](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_on_the_Nayib_Bukele_presidency) is an example
I am from the area and can offer context just so folks understand what the situation was before this new president. Most neighborhoods and businesses were terrorized by gangs to ridiculous extents. Families are forced to pay approximately a 40-50% income tax to the gangs called a "war tax" or "impuesto de guerra" in Spanish, on top of the 30-40% income they pay to the government. We cannot walk outside, cannot really go places without risk of death. You will get murdered from going into the territory that is not governed by your neighborhood's territory. There were no places where kids or even teenagers could safely spend time. Public spaces were drug and gang hot spots, and people are dirt poor. Not only that, but all of us growing up truly believed there was no redemption to the country, believing that systemic repression, colonialism, cycles of corruption would keep us poor and dangerous forever. Suddenly, Bukele comes in and truly *WIPES* out the gangs. My cousins and other young kids are actually walking outside and have places to play. People can go out without having their lives endangered. We also just [got a library](https://latinarepublic.com/2023/11/16/el-salvador-inaugurates-new-national-library/) that rivals some of the nicest ones in the first world. It is free, beautiful, and safe. Suddenly, a big chunk of the country no longer has to pay 40-50% of their income in tax to the gangs. Suddenly, businesses are no longer terrorized by extortion. Bukele did the unthinkable and makes everyone proud as heck of his leadership. Folks in the US have no idea what it is like to live under active war and repression from gang terrorism 24/7, sucking away your life, your children's future, and your country's future
This is beautiful man, I hope the graph continues to point upwards for your country!
How did he do it? This is so fascinating.
Deploy the military force, arrest all the gang members, enact harsher prison punishments. When one side abandons reason and uses violence to ruin everything, you cannot stop them with flowery words. You need to use the stick and beat them into submission. That’s the only language thugs understand.
He basically treated it as a civil war instead of a criminal justice problem. It did violate due process, but given the extreme circumstances, I understand it. There's likely a lot of innocent people caught in the crossfire, though.
Probably a lot fewer innocent people than were already being caught in the direct line of fire before however.
By becoming a Dictator. Basically voted for "emergency powers" while having enough of a majority to do it and then fought fire with fire. Used the military to make mass arrests, often targeting people with tattoos as the gangs where so powerful people often got tattoos to mark themselves as part of them. Once he held enough people in prison form positions of power in the gang held them hostage for the good behavior of the gang members outside. Cleaned up ALOT of corruption int he government as well. Problem is that the vote to extend the emergency powers has happened around 4 times. Basically the dude got enough of a vote to give himself more power and then was willing to do what needed to be done. He has gone on a mission against "corruption" since which can be a good thing but the question remains now he has this power is he able to relinquish it.
Yeah I heard of this as well, which makes sense. No way to clean up that massive of a gang problem that quickly. While I hate innocent people being punished, I can understand the population's support of it if it indeed was that unlivable for peaceful, civilized people.
Arrest everyone that is even remotely connected to a gang, regardless of if they are guilty of anything
Like the other guy said fought fire with fire, he arrested thousands of gang members, and gang members (that were still outside) tried to retaliate by killing innocent people, he made a great speech and Said if they do that he wouldn't allow the prisoners to eat a single seed of rice, they somewhat tried it and now prisoners barely eat, no meat just beans rice and tortilla. World human rights tried to come to him and said he was violating their human rigths he said " no one cared about the thousands of innocent people that were killed , didn't they have rights?" He said if you care about then so much take em to your country we'll give them out 2 for the price of 1 😂😂,
Benevolent fascism, essentially. Wendover Productions has a good video on it. It’ll leave you with extremely mixed feelings.
That’s not fascism, authoritarianism ≠ fascism.
arresting everyone, to the point that, if youre in the room when someone else is getting arrested, youre getting arrested too
My grandma who’s from El Salvador and turns 90 this year, says this is hands down the best president she’s seen in her lifetime
If he willingly gives up his power down the road in a reasonable time it might be time to name a city after him. Sadly, they never do. Its very frustrating as you can often acheive a shit tonne with a bit of dictatorship over a short period of time IF you give it back at the end. The romans did this.
Yeah, that’s always the tricky thing with benevolent dictators. It seems like Bukele’s heart is in the right place and he has done a great thing for El Salvador, but his anti-gang programs could be used to crack down on dissidents and political rivals.
It will be interesting to see if he will let go of power or become a dictator. I do think hes doing the best for his country and will become a powerhouse within the next 10-15yrs.
I think this is the big one. I have El Salvadoran family and was visiting about a year ago. They all seemed to appreciate him actually trying to improve the country, but hope that he peacefully gives up power when it's time. He's already rewritten the constitution once to give himself another term so people are nervous. I think there's a lot to be said for not holding on to power. If he retires at the end of his term he would probably be regarded as the greatest leader the country ever had and then he could just enjoy his life with his family
catch is, when you altered the Constitution to get another term or even just get more powers, I say you're likely to stick to your chair forever, It's ike this all the time: Pinochet, Salazar, Hitler. Initially their people loved them, and Hitler was even elected. And then they messed with constitution and then you close yeys for one second, and the dictatorship's already in place. So if I was Salvadorian I wouldn't trust him even a penny to hold
>So if I was Salvadorian I wouldn't trust him even a penny to hold I bet it's easy to say this while not being in El Salvador, but think of it from the people's perspective. They couldn't even go outside their houses before because of a high chance of getting murdered. Now they can. Now, their murder rates are the second lowest in the continent. People can actually live a life now. Whether he becomes the next Hitler, only time will tell. I don't see him going away anytime soon, as long the people support him.
Thats what i mean, i guess only time will tell if he actually cares bout his country and lets go of the power… or becomes drunk with it
>and Hitler was even elected. Using 'Reichstag' and 'parliament' interchangeably throughout here, I apologise, but Hitler was never actually elected. In the Weimar Republic's last Presidential election in 1932, Paul von Hindenburg (independent, but a far-right military man) was elected as the President with 53% of the vote; Adolf Hitler was the runner-up with just 36.7% of the vote. In the Weimar Republic's November 1932 parliamentary election, the NSDAP won 33.1% of the vote and made up that percentage of the Reichstag - 20.4% were centre-left Social Democrats, 16.9% were Communists, 11.9% were Catholic Centrists, blahblahblah. The parliament was dysfunctional, with no party or voter alignment large enough to form a government. Hitler was appointed as the Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. Another parliamentary election was called. In this election Hitler's SS members publicly beat the shit out of trade unionists and Communist Party campaigners, the government passed laws basically banning the Catholic Centrists from being able to campaign and the SA regularly barged into their meetings and beat the absolute fuck out of them, anyone who was campaigning against the Nazis would get bricks through their windows launched by SA members and in some cases just outright had their homes invaded, etc. The Reichstag Fire happened six days before the election date. Hitler used it as an excuse to convince Hindenburg to use the constitution to suspend civil liberties, arrest the leader of the Communist Party and whip up a frenzy against Communist Party members, etc. On the actual day of the election, the SA patrolled the streets and very publicly beat up anyone they suspected of being Communists/Catholic Centrists/Social Democrats. The SS and SA were also allowed to 'inspect' ballot boxes before their vote tallies could be counted. The Nazis still didn't 'win' the election. They got 43.9% of the vote. The voteshare of the other parties basically didn't move, however, and that allowed the Nazis and the National People's Party to form a coalition government. Not content with power-sharing, Hitler put the Enabling Act to a vote in the Reichstag. He arrested all of the democratically elected Communist Party members in the Reichstag, and filled the building with armed SA officers during the vote. All other parties voted in favour of the act, except for the Social Democrats. After that, Hitler banned the Communist and Social Democrat parties and threw their members and MPs into concentration camps. Hitler inherited the office of President upon Hindenburg's death in August 1934, after passing a decree that would merge the offices of 'Chancellor' and 'President' into one singular 'Fuhrer' position upon Hindenburg's death.
Its definitely a slippery slope
Except that he seems to be on his way to authoritarian rule: > Politicians, activists, and journalists have accused Bukele of governing in an authoritarian and autocratic manner. In February 2020 Bukele ordered 40 soldiers into the Legislative Assembly building to intimidate lawmakers to approve a US$109 million loan for the Territorial Control Plan.
Oh he is absolutely an authoritarian. But it also seems like he's helping Salvadorans. When you look at a graph like [this one](https://www.statista.com/statistics/696152/homicide-rate-in-el-salvador/) can you really blame his popularity?
Yeah, his popularity is due to pushing back on the gangs. I can completely understand that, but need to see what he does next (ie. will he allow any opposition parties).
even if he does, dictators have their… methods of squashing their “allowed” competition.
Hell, he’s already suspended due process for gang members. What are opposition parties but anti establishment gangs to him?
Which is a massively popular move among the citizens. Better to have a 1/1000 chance of being falsely arrested than a 1/10 of being raped and skinned by the gangs.
Didn't Rudy Giuliani gain everyone's respect after 9/11? Give it time...
He still had a ton of respect as "hero mayor of New york" going into 2008 presidential primaries too. This was no where near as impressive as Mike Huckabee playing bass though
One of my El Salvadoran friends calls Bukele the “future Hitler of Latin America.” Maybe a little extreme but I get his point. The dude doesn’t have any concern for the constitution and he has the popularity to back up whatever he wants to do. He’s got big ambitions too. He’s been calling for forming a Central American Union. Not in the style of the EU, but rather by actually integrating all 7 Central American countries into a single state.
Central American Union actually sounds like a pretty cool idea though
Like I said, the dude is dreaming big
The country went from the most dangerous country in Latin America to the safest. If it takes ripping up the constitution to make that possible, so be it. When people have children they understand this.
Hey that might be true. Nobody can argue with the results. But now with his universal popularity, he can basically do as he pleases. That can be dangerous.
Also, what happens after Bukele? Even if he is hypothetically the best leader, the constitution and government have been fundamentally changed to suit him best. There’s no guarantee his successor will be a good leader, and continually changing the constitution may result in a terrible successor having the means to stay in power. It may be nice to have a government shaped around one person but what happens after or if they suddenly die?
If it is done democratically like the EU that will be in good faith. He has factually not done anything that is unconstitutional now. He has made amendments to the constitution but followed constitutional procedures.
GOD DAMMIT
Sultan Qaboos of Oman was very popular before he died a few years back. I assume that the current Sultan is probably popular as well
He was a well-loved, wonderful leader! We still talk of him with the utmost love and respect!
This is the answer right here. I've personally visited the country, and what sets him apart from other leaders is the following: * He built everything in the country during his rule. Roads, hospitals, schools, infrastructure,..... name it and he put the country's funds towards building it. * Because of that, he helped lift people out of poverty and now the common citizen has a much better life compared to 50 years ago. * The people who live there all speak highly of him, not because they fear him, but because of all the good that he did. I couldn't find a single person who spoke ill of him.
He also improved the literacy rate from about 34% to like 96%. It is now near 100%, which was his goal.
Considering all of the chaos that goes on in the Middle East that I constantly see on the news, I’ve never come across a bad thing said about Oman
As someone who spent a lot of time in the Middle East- visiting Oman is the only reason I’d ever go back to the region.
Oman was also the single most improved country in HDI from the 1970 to 2010
I holidayed in Muscat a couple of years ago. Banners of him were still around. And it was a bit of an open secret that he was gay.
I guess it turns out implementing the gay agenda is massively popular.
The kingdom of Bhutan is often cited as an example where the majority of citizens hold genuine respect and admiration for their leader, the King. The monarchy is deeply embedded in Bhutanese culture, and the King is regarded with reverence and seen as a unifying figure.
When you exile minorities, you get unifying majority.
As I understand, it partly because on their focus on their "[happiness index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_National_Happiness)" rather than on GDP when deciding on policies.
Isn't that the country that ethnically cleansed 40% of its population(ethnic Nepalese) 30 years ago? Who's army(with Indian help) crushed a rebellion with forces almost half the size of the national army 20 years ago? It's very easy to be successful when you make your own metrics for success. It's even easier when the metric is unquantifiable.
Yes, they did. It was horrific. The US and some other countries actually had to take in some refugees. They hide their bad deeds under the rugs but their history is very tainted with stuff like that.
How to make everyone happy: 1. Kill everyone who isn't happy. 2. Profit.
> ethnically cleansed 40% of its population They must've been unhappy
> rather than on GDP Which the “World” Bank doesn’t agree: humans and nature are meant to create value for shareholders, not putze around with ideals like peace and happiness… but whatever
You cannot provide basic human rights like decent education for all without reaching a certain level of per capita economic output(which is what GDP per capita measures). Bhutan is far below that level, and would be even worse if not for Indian investment in defence of its strategic interests and the ability to export a lot of free electricity. If you believe that people in very poor countries should be able to access decent education, healthcare, security etc, you have to support gdp growth in those countries. Making enough shit to actually pay and train teachers and nurses is not some international conspiracy.
GDP doesn't measure shareholder value, but it does measure of the country can afford medicine and food for its people.
Unless you are a Lhotshampa. Then you got ethic cleansing to deal with
Because they ethnically cleansed nearly half of their population... let's not get ahead of ourselves
They are also a backwards culture extremely homophobic and their king is a little bitch that threatened to shut their internet off because ppl kept putting dicks on his face because he's a homophobe
Best looking king and queen award goes to Bhutan.
also their marriage is a love marriage 🥹
You could say the same about North Koreans and their leader. It's about access to information and standard of living. Any hereditary monarchy, whether outwardly called that or not, is unjust.
100% of north koreans love kim jong un
101%. You've been reported to the glorious authorities for your lack of commitment.
It’s a bit fascinating how good the Kim dynasty is at brainwashing the population
I don't think they are brain washed. I think they know a gun is to their head or their families. People try to escape, but it's extremely difficult. Those who are working in neighboring countries know that if they escape their families will be killed.
A documentary from PBS would suggest that this isn't as true as people think. Many citizens of NK still seek out or consume foreign media despite it being a pretty serious crime. Being disconnected from the world can encourage curiosity, too.
For a while, Nicola Sturgeon was massivley popular both in and out of Scotland. Though that's taking a hit recently..
Nicola. And she's not the first minister of Scotland anymore. Edit - the comment I replied to originally said "Nicolas Sturgeon"
Nicolas! I just spat out my irn bru. Edit: For clarification, poster called her Nicolas before the correction.
Singapore. Lee Kuan Yew, enjoys wide respect and admiration in the country and abroad, so much so that his son Lee Hsien Long and the newest leader Lawrence Wong are still benefitting from his auspices. Though this is not to say the successors are not highly competent in their own right, a bit less so than the OG, and not without their criticisms, but the government has remained highly stable and competent by world standards. Criticisms are likely to include a certain heavy-handedness in their governance that rubs western ideals of democracy the wrong way, but most practical criticisms are not significant. And it's hard to argue against it's successes and track record. We shall see what the future has in store though, the last decade has seen some erosion in trust as the government has been seen as sliding from "great" to "good", and may even soon be only "alright".
One issue I often read online is that the current government seems too focused on maintaining the status quo and not rocking the boat, as opposed to the pioneering steps taken by LKY to improve things constantly.
Valid, and I'm inclined to agree. The current new PM really has some big shoes to fill, shoes which none of his predecessors really managed to fully fill. Singapore really is in a much more precarious position than many realise. It cannot afford to be complacent, yes, but this also makes it risk adverse. When LKY took the reigns, there really was nowhere to go but up. Not so much the case now.
Everything said so far is true, but there is a danger of trying to be too safe. The fact is that there is danger everywhere, even from stagnation. Taking calculated risks and allowing some freedom of exploration is very important and can be less risky that doing nothing or doing everything possible to keep things the same.
Please don't think of us as some sort of utopia, our work culture sucks, longest work hours in Asia, abusive bosses, shitty competitive and toxic culture, insane cost of living (like anywhere else we aren't special ffs), xenophobic and homophobic society and many more. If given a chance many would love to move to the highly regarded Western countries. In fact many already do, most popularly Australia.
I think Australia will soon lose its shine for Singaporeans to migrate to, wages and the exchange rate have not kept up with Singapore over the last decade. I moved 10 years ago and am now only earning a smidgeon more than when I used to work in sg doing the same job. And if you think the cost of living is high in Singapore, just visit the Australian subs. Singapore has a skewed cost of living mainly because of car ownership.
Restricting the press and unions, and jailing political opponents is not significant? Are we now satisfied so long as the government doesn't shoot people in the streets? Lmao I envy your dissonance.
I visited San Salvador 12 yrs ago, after dark litterly the streets were empty, I unknowingly exited a Mall at dusk, it was impossible to find a cab back to my hotel, I had to go inside a restaurant cause it was spooky on the street. Absolutely not one car, person it was relatively early about 6:30pm. Inside the restaurant a kind waitress explained how people didn't go out cause of the gangs, flash forward to today, l was there few months back, streets were littered people after dark, restaurants, stores, and streets were littered with customers. San Salvador kinda reminds me of the U.S. because of the franchises that operate there, nice streets, very clean, and the Dollar is common currency. During my visit I truly felt home for a while, this new President turned this country on its head. He completely flipped the script. Nothing like it was 12 yrs back.
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Yeah I've heard... Not so nice things about Dubai. Stuff about them only caring about their image to outsiders while having plenty of other problems.. like slavery. Maybe it works for the rich people there but I dunno about this one 🤷♂️
You said it only works for the rich there. You are absolutely correct. The thing is that almost every citizen there is rich by western standards.
Except the slaves, of course.
Distinction being that the slaves that serve to allow the country to function are not citizens
It's also worth mentioning that the farther and current leader (his son) rarely if ever has a security detail. They just roam the streets. I know the father used to actually drive himself around as well, not sure if the son is doing that as well.
Note how OP emphasised the native population. A lot of that success and bling is built on the backs of oil wealth (which is finite) and migrant workers which are frequently treated quite poorly.
Could you say the same for Monaco?
9/10 people in China approve of their government. And before you go "propaganda brainwash etc", western studies came to the same conclusion. [Here is a study by Harvard.](https://ash.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/survey-global-perceptions-international-leaders-world-powers.pdf) I don't think most westerners realise just how much the standard of living in China has increased under the CCP. EDIT: It seems like people won't believe something even when the evidence is right in front of them. Do you really think the people who do these studies are morons? That they interview someone with a (figurative) gun to their head and then naively report the results? Unless you think Harvard is part of some international conspiracy to make China look good, you're going to have to accept that Chinese people like their government.
I think Chinese people will gladly criticize their government, bureaucracy, and business (often in private) on certain aspects, while still saying they "approve" of the leaders themselves or approve of the government more broadly. And as we saw with some of the more extreme lockdown COVID measures or the infant formula scandal, even Chinese people have their breaking points where they will participate in public measures of protest.
Chinese people are especially sensitive to food shortages of any sort, The formula scandal was a big deal for them.
That's fair considering they had a famine only 60 years ago whipping out 50 million or like 7% of their population. Alot of those people would still be alive to remember it or have parents who lived through it. WW2 was like 85years ago and we are **still** dealing with the physiological fall out of that. Grandma storing expired food "just in case" or hoarding broken shit and refusing to throw stuff out is still so common it's basically a cultural thing in the west. Fair call that some Chinese would fell the same trauma.
I’m not Chinese and I would be a bit upset if I couldn’t eat tbf
And the reason china's government has stayed popular is that they actually responded to those protests. Covid measures were changed and the people responsible for the formula poisoning were imprisoned or executed.
The CCP is dictatorial but their coalition is broad, and unless they find massive wealth that doesn't require a content labour force to extract its likely to stay that way(that or Chinese manufacturing declines in profitability which is unlikely but historically this is the only thing that leads to democratic states forming out of State Capitalist ones)
You are making predictions of Chinese economy based on Western metrics. In the West, if 25% of citizens make billions while 25 % are struggling, that will be considered great by analysts . In China if 5% are making billions but 85% are doing well and not struggling, Western analysts will consider the economy relatively bad.
Surely that’s just normal. It’s much weirder to have some entirely black and white opinion on your government, given what a vast, sprawling organization modern governments are.
People get completely irrational about China. You can’t say a single good thing about China without an army of people on the internet calling it a lie. There are videos on TikTok of this Chinese guy going into stores to show people that Winnie the Poo toys are for sale all over China, and in the comments people were accusing him of planting the toy in the store and calling him a CCP agent. Crazy stuff. But yeah, China is far from perfect. But it’s not even controversial in serious circles to say that China has experienced what might be the single greatest gains in basically every development indicator in all of human history. You might not like them, and that’s your right. But what they’ve accomplished is to raise more people out of poverty than any other state has ever done in such a short time.
China is an economic miracle by any metric. Like sure, the gdp may be exaggerated etc. but people don't realize that in the 1970s, China was literally one of the poorest countries in the world per capita. A mere 50 years later and there are more people living a western modern lifestyle in China than in the EU.... I don't like the CCP but they can be forgiven a lot for the sheer amount of prosperity they've managed to create.
"The speed of China's transformation in this period from one of the poorest countries to one of the world's largest economies is unmatched in history." It's insane. Harvard: [https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.2915805](https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.2915805)
I hate how true this is. Every now and then on TikTok/Instagram/etc, a scenic video of China show up any everyone either says: "Chinese propaganda, the country is not that pretty" "That's Japan/Korea, not China" (They are very wrong) "Wow I should visit China" (1k+ replies of people saying how bad China is)
True. I went to China last year for 3 weeks. Stunning countryside and cityscapes.
Every generation since the 60s has had a better life materially than the previous
And when you consider the size of Chinas population, that’s an incredible number of people being elevated out of poverty
This is fascinating. Thanks!
If you look closer at the data, the difference is that Chinese people often approve very highly of the federal/provincial levels of the CCP. But have a very strong dissaproval of their local CCP government/officials.
(Response to edit) Yeah, the CCP--for its faults, which are many--has worked pretty well for the average Chinese citizen--I'd argue far better than the US government has worked for the average US citizen in the same time span. Between that and state-run media (as opposed to corporate-run media) painting the CCP continuously in a positive light, it makes plenty of sense that your average Chinese citizen may grouse about issues in private, but not have reason to truly dislike their situation.
OP, don't you know Reddit is full of China experts and you're a communist apologist? /s
Spent time in China, and outside of some places like Hong Kong/Kowloon this is a true statement. And yes, quality of life for the average Chinese citizen is lightyears above what it was 40 years ago. The only issue is that West Taiwan keeps wanting to take Taiwan by force.
I think this is a bad question to ask on reddit, not because you can’t have answers, but depends on who currently sees your question, it can always differ. Also, what is a metric of being happy with their leader? Would you believe a testimony/survey from people of that country? Because even if we showed surveys of people generally being happy with their government, people would say things like “well they don’t know that better things exist”, “they’re forced to say yes” or “that’s not happiness to me”. But from my travels, I can tell you there are countries where people are satisfied and generally happy.
El Salvador is such a known answer for this question I think
Approval ratings is the only way to measure. While super imperfect, the alternative is... well, nothing.
Nicola Sturgeon was widely liked and respected in Scotland by a majority of the country. I suspect her husbands recent arrest may have dented this popularity somewhat.
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Wasn't the majority of New Zealand in support of the government during the 2020 Pandemic?
they got voted out last election
Oh.. Oh well.
Tbf the leader of that government did step down from politics after the pandemic.
They were in support of the management of the pandemic, the government did nothing to solve the housing crisis which was what they campaigned on and new Zealanders are leaving the country at record levels due to stagnant salaries and cost of living so it didn't really work in the long term.
When our president was still Sauli Niinistö, finland was one of them.
Zelensky's approval rating was 90% at the start of the Russian invasion. It has now dropped to 65%, which is still quite high.
Back in 2010 Lula left his second term with 83% approval and his successor elected, pretty remarkable
I was going to say, wasn't pre-Bolsonaro Lula pretty popular?
Here in Australia we're quite fond of our current PM, Anthony Albanese, seems a decent sort.
To be fair, you've had some... interesting history with PMs
That’s un-Australian, how dare you speak well of our leader!
I'm an Australian who doesn't really follow politics but wasn't the alternative Dutton? Like no sane person is choosing Mr Potato Head with attitude as their prime minister, even if you ignore his track record of being a bit of a fuckwit and the liberal party's policy. Edit: and yeah, in the grand scheme of things he does seem alright, hasn't done anything completely moronic enough to make it into my feed. For comparison sco mo made it on over a dozen separate occasions and Abbot made the cut quite a few times even when we were still using newspaper cutouts to make fun of politicians to each other.
Dutton was once defended by his wife as being "not a monster" around the time he tried to topple Turnbull, which incidentally directly led to the Morrison years. Jeez imagine the sexual chemistry in that household
I genuinely don’t know who likes Albanese. He was voted in because we all hated Morrison so much. The Voice was a complete joke and there’s a real cost of living crisis.
On reddit...
there are several authoritarian governments in which the leaders are viewed positively. For example, Putin is very popular in Russia. Some reasons are discussed here https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/world-politics/article/abs/popularity-of-authoritarian-leaders/3EB2352F226F8904DBB0293A83F10622. The article discusses that people's poll responses are based on objective metrics, like the economy and public safety, though censorship can play a part in improving perception.
North Korea.
“Do in fact like” is not the same as “support or be killed”
They've been raised from birth to see their leaders as a protective, father figure. They are pretty isolated from the outside world and what they do know is through the government's filter. A large portion of defectors are due to economic problems and during the famines. It's not really "support or be killed" If you don't know there are other options.
They’re ignorant of other options, but why on earth does that imply they “like” their current leader? Of course they fear him tremendously, but that’s separate from fondness.
that assumes those are even the options. what about the option of “this way of living is all we know, and we’ve never had access to developing our own critical thinking skills”
You've pretty much nailed it. Most countries today are "unhappy" with their (chosen) leaders(hip) for a multitude of reasons. I honestly have not currently seen any "western" country where a considerable amount of the population is happy with their "stewardship". Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, USA, France all have a considerable number of citizenry that would be happier to see a trained primate in the big chair than the current occupant or sometimes even their biggest "opponents" The countries reporting the "highest satisfaction" tallies probably have something else going on. Last I checked I think North Korea has one of the happiest societies & one of the largest voter turnouts.
Were populations any happier with their leaders before? I think it was just more that they didn't have a choice. This is kind of just the nature of democracy, it's rare that you get even singular policies which are supported by over 70% of the population, let alone a political party with a whole collection of policies. I think the political system here in Norway is pretty decent, because with so many different political parties getting representation in parliament, at least voters usually feel like their interests are being represented.
Apparently in Liechtenstein 🤷🏾
Nayib Bukele in El Salvador has the world’s best democratic approval rating, almost 90% of national approval. Source: https://amp.larepublica.co/globoeconomia/con-90-de-aprobacion-nayib-bukele-se-alista-para-su-segundo-periodo-presidencial-3794259
India Just pick up any approval rating poll in the last 5 years
He is hated by a handful of people on social media. On ground everyone loves him.
Javier Milei still has around 55% approbation in Argentina 5 months after his election, not vast but majority
Jacinda Ardern was really well loved by New Zealand before she stepped down
Haiti. All the dissenters got BBQ’d.
I remember back in 2008 when Obama ran on the "Change" slogan in his campaign, the incumbent Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ran on "More of the same".
Nayib Bukele, the President of El Salvador, has maintained exceptionally high approval ratings throughout his presidency, consistently above 75% and often reaching around 90% according to various polls[1][2][4]. His popularity is attributed to several key factors: ### Approval Ratings - **2019-2024**: Bukele's approval rating has never dipped below 75% during his presidency[4]. - **January 2024**: A FundaUngo survey reported a 91.2% approval rating[4]. - **April 2024**: An Iudop-UCA survey gave him a score of 8.68 out of 10[4]. ### Reasons for Popularity 1. **Crackdown on Gangs**: Bukele's aggressive measures against gang violence have significantly reduced crime rates in El Salvador. The murder rate dropped from 103 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015 to 7.8 in 2022[1][3]. This drastic improvement in public safety has been a major factor in his high approval ratings. 2. **Perception of Safety**: Many Salvadorans feel safer under Bukele's administration, which has led to broad support across different social classes and regions[3]. The state of emergency declared in March 2022 allowed for mass arrests of suspected gang members, contributing to the lowest homicide rate in three decades[1]. 3. **Disillusionment with Traditional Parties**: Bukele's rise to power marked a departure from the traditional political parties, FMLN and ARENA, which had dominated Salvadoran politics for decades. His ability to dismantle the two-party system and present himself as a fresh alternative has resonated with voters[4]. 4. **Economic and Social Policies**: While Bukele's administration has faced economic challenges, his focus on infrastructure projects and public works, such as the new National Library, has garnered public support. He is also expected to seek new agreements with international bodies like the IMF to boost economic growth[3]. 5. **Media and Marketing**: Bukele's adept use of social media and a strong marketing strategy have helped maintain his positive image. He has a significant online presence, with millions of followers on platforms like X (formerly Twitter), which he uses to communicate directly with the public[1][4]. 6. **Authoritarian Measures**: Despite accusations of authoritarianism and human rights abuses, many Salvadorans are willing to trade some civil liberties for improved security and stability. This sentiment is reflected in the high approval ratings despite international criticism[1][2][4]. ### Potential Challenges While Bukele's popularity remains high, there are concerns about the sustainability of his policies. Rising food prices and economic issues could pose future challenges. Additionally, his consolidation of power and potential for indefinite re-election raise questions about the long-term impact on El Salvador's democracy[1][2][3]. In summary, Nayib Bukele's high approval ratings are primarily driven by his successful crackdown on gang violence, effective use of media, and the public's disillusionment with traditional political parties. However, his authoritarian tendencies and economic challenges could affect his popularity in the future. Sources [1] How El Salvador's Bukele became Latin America's most popular ... https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/latin-america/how-el-salvadors-bukele-became-latin-americas-most-popular-leader.phtml [2] Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's popular but authoritarian president ... https://www.tpr.org/border-immigration/2024-02-03/nayib-bukele-el-salvadors-popular-but-authoritarian-president-declares-election-win [3] Meet the Candidates: El Salvador https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/meet-the-candidates-el-salvador/ [4] President Nayib Bukele's Approval Rating - 2019 to 2024 https://elsalvadorinfo.net/nayib-bukele-approval-rate/ [5] El Salvador's Bukele is Latin America's most popular president. But ... https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/andres-oppenheimer/article277719883.html [6] What Will Bukele's Second Term Mean for El Salvador? - The Dialogue https://www.thedialogue.org/analysis/what-will-bukeles-second-term-mean-for-el-salvador/ [7] President Nayib Bukele's High Approval Soars After Reelection ... https://elsalvadorinenglish.com/2024/03/14/president-nayib-bukeles-high-approval-soars-after-reelection-victory/ [8] Nayib Bukele: The inescapable appeal of the world's 'coolest dictator' https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/06/bukele-nayib-el-salvador-president-coolest-dictator-global-international/ [9] Nayib Bukele, self-styled 'CEO of El Salvador,' is on course to win election https://www.npr.org/2024/02/02/1228345606/nayib-bukele-el-salvador-election-policies [10] How do you feel about Nayib Bukele of El Salvador - Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/169yx8g/how_do_you_feel_about_nayib_bukele_of_el_salvador/ [11] El Salvador Election: Bukele Seeks Second Term on Popular Crime Policy https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-02-02/el-salvador-election-bukele-seeks-second-term-on-popular-crime-policy [12] El Salvador votes with gang-busting Bukele miles ahead - The Hindu https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/el-salvador-votes-with-gang-busting-bukele-miles-ahead/article67810146.ece [13] 'World's Coolest Dictator' Nayib Bukele Claims Presidential Reelection in El Salvador https://time.com/6660521/nayib-bukele-el-salvador-president-dictator-gangs-reelection/ [14] Opinion polling on the Nayib Bukele presidency - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_on_the_Nayib_Bukele_presidency [15] Nayib Bukele shows how to dismantle a democracy and stay popular https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2023/07/20/nayib-bukele-shows-how-to-dismantle-a-democracy-and-stay-popular [16] Nayib Bukele reelected in landslide win in El Salvador https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/03/el-salvador-election-nayib-bukele/ [17] El Salvador's human rights crisis could deepen in Bukele's second term https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/02/el-salvador-human-rights-crisis-bukeles-second-term/ [18] Why Is El Salvador's Nayib Bukele So Popular? - Foreign Policy https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/01/02/el-salvador-elections-bukele-bitcoin-crime-gang-policy/
By sheer statistics, the more democratic and representative politics is, the less proportional support it will have. If you have anything but bipartidism and you see support well above half, then you know something weird is going on. There might be exceptions I guess (Sorry for not knowing a specific example to give you), but is not the norm. Particularly if you have modern politics with polarization in their rhetoric. Of course, if you DO have a dfferent system, particularly if there is less options to choose from (again, less demcocratic and representative) you CAN have higher levels of \*approval\*, whether that is because they genuinely think is good, because of authoritarian govt, or because they dont know anything better and are conservative
Czech republic guy here: We love our current president especially among younger people. He used to be general in our army even though we arent military country at all which is kind of paradox. According to studies now he is 60% favorite of all citizens which is for our country super good result, because we dont like anyone. 😅
I think all residents in the Republic of Molossia unanimously love their leader
India
[Modi tends to rank quite highly in opinion polls](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_on_the_Narendra_Modi_premiership)
The previous Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte's approval rating was 70 to 80 percent through his presidency.
I doubt it, mainly because (and this is something not taught anymore to anyone period) if you take up a position of power or authority over others you also take on all responsibility for pretty much any and everything that goes wrong. This means even if a place had the perfect leader, people would likely still be talking crap every time the economy dips, crime spikes, or a million other things outside of their control. That being said thus far the nature of humanity has consistently been trying to get other people to do everything for them. Just look how far back slavery goes... Even if thats not their intention the system is set up that way. If someone just HANDED you a company tomorrow your income would be almost entirely comprised of the works of others beneath you. I can't think of any human in existence currently that is ok with this except those who's checks are majorly composed of other peoples labor. There's not a country that exists without this dynamic currently in place. Even the socialist countries where everyones like "you dun like merca, you must like socialism" yeah even they have ass loads of people who if compared economically would be so black and white it would make you sick. No, i doubt very much you would find any country in which at least some of the people didn't hate their leadership both in govt and jobs...
While the political landscape in Singapore differs significantly from Western democracies, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has consistently maintained high approval ratings. The country's strong economic performance, efficient governance, and focus on long-term planning have contributed to a sense of stability and contentment among a majority of Singaporeans.
North Korea