Gallopedia Highlights- Week # 129

Dated 18^th-24^th July, 2010

This week’s report consists of 30 surveys. 2 of these are multi-country surveys. 13 polling organizations have been represented.

ASIA zone-2 national polls:
Northeast Asia: Philippines, China

South Asia: Pakistan

West Asia: Afghanistan

EURO-AMERICAS zone-27 national polls & 2 Multi national polls:

East Europe- Russia, Czech Republic

West Europe- UK

North America- U.S.A, Canada
Latin America- Brazil

Australasia: Australia, New Zealand

COMMENTARY: Politics is Not a Very Popular Choice as Profession for Pakistanis
July 19, 2010

According to a survey carried out by Gallup Pakistan , politics as a profession is not very popular among the average Pakistani men and women. Only 22% have ever wished to join politics and even if they were offered an opportunity, only 9% say they will have a strong inclination to take up the profession, another 19% express some inclination. But the vast majority of both men and women show complete disinclination to join politics as a professional career.

Only 22% have ever wished to join politics

A nationally representative sample of men and women from across the country were asked the following question “Have you ever wished to join politics?” More than three quarters (77%) of the respondents had no such desire of joining politics where as 22% were interested in taking part in politics. 1% gave no response.

“Have you ever wished to join politics?”

Only 9% are keen on adopting politics as a professional career

In a follow up question the respondents were asked “Suppose you get a chance of joining politics, what are the chances that you will adopt it as a profession? Only 9% showed great enthusiasm and said that they are a lot of chances that they will take up politics as a profession, 19% mentioned there are some chances of this, 22% stated there are very little chances while half of the respondents (50%) stated that there is no likelihood at all of them entering the field of politics.

“Suppose you get a chance of joining politics, what are the chances that you will

adopt it as a profession?

”

Gender difference is small

It is interesting to note that the gender difference on politics as a professional career is smaller than one would expect. Thus 7% of women (as opposed to 10% of men) are highly inclined towards politics as a career.

Only 3% of with Post Graduate Education are keen on adopting politics as a professional career

On the other hand interest in Politics as a professional career takes a sharp dip among Pakistanis with post graduate education, as only 3% of them said they were keen on politics as a professional career.

Commentary by Gallup Pakistan ; BEYOND THE FORGED DEGREES DEBATE:

The findings of the survey are a sad commentary on the prospects of building a civilian political leadership for a democratic Pakistan. A successful democracy requires talented people from all sections of the society to be attracted to politics as an engaging commitment and profession. Pakistan needs to deliberate why politics appeals to and attracts people with low levels of education; after all so many of those elected to the parliament had to forge basic college degrees to qualify according to the law at the time. Pakistan also needs to deliberate why voters prefer the lowly educated politicians to those with higher qualifications and why political parties are unable to recruit the better educated into their ranks. While the current blame game on forged degrees of parliamentarians may even be counter-productive, it does provide a serious occasion for deliberating on how can Pakistan build an educated political class and what would induce a larger section of the society to aspire for politics as a career.

The study was carried out by Gallup Pakistan , the Pakistani affiliate of Gallup International. The recent survey was carried out among a sample of 2757 men and women in rural and urban areas of all four provinces of the country, during July 2010. Error margin is estimated to be approximately + 2-3 % at 95% confidence level.

The complete detailed weekly reports of the project can be found on theGilani's Gallopedia website.