G8 Online Survey Results
10/08/2009
Civil society should enjoy greater involvement both in the G8 Summit itself and in conducting an assessment of the results achieved, but the world's eight leading countries are entitled to play a steering role for the international community as a whole. This is one of the main considerations to have emerged from the first online public survey on the G8 ever held. Entitled "Have Your Say on the G8", the survey opened on 8 July, the first day of the Summit in L'Aquila, and stayed open until 25 July.
A month on from the event itself, a breakdown of the survey's results is now available, adding a more detailed picture to the initial figures published over the past few weeks.
More men than women completed the survey (approximately 70%), most of them holding Italian nationality (over 73%) and coming from all age groups. Interestingly, this ran counter to the overall trend, where the website as a whole attracted a higher number of foreign visitors than Italians.
Who took part in the survey? 1,000 visitors, out of a total of 160,000 between 8 and 25 July (112,000 of whom visited the site in the three days of the summit), is not a representative sample of the Italian population either in terms of gender (there are as many men in Italy as there are women) or of age (the 35-39 and over-64 age groups were under-represented compared to the overall situation in Italy).
In general the survey returned a positive view of the G8 Summit in L'Aquila, which was seen both as providing Italy with a chance to raise its profile in the world and as an opportunity for development in the Abruzzo region. By the same token, respondents broadly backed the decision to transfer the Summit venue from La Maddalena to L’Aquila.
Fully 80% of respondents tracked the 2009 Summit with interest and are convinced that the G8 leaders can play a steering role on the international stage. Some 70% consider the G8 countries to have the moral authority to debate global issues, although respondents failed to adopt a stance on whether the Summit is the appropriate venue for actually tackling those issues or whether new political tools need to be devised.
An analysis of respondents'age and nationality shows that interest in an event such as the G8 increases with age. Younger respondents adopted a more critical position, particularly regarding the question of whether the G8 is a suitable forum for addressing world issues, and also in acknowleding the eight leading countries' moral authority. But younger and older respondents did tend to agree on the need for civil society to enjoy greater involvement in the process.
Some 70% of respondents see Italy's year-long stint as G8 President as providing the country with an opportunity to raise its profile in the world and to impart a fresh boost to the Abruzzo region, while 60% feel that the Summit does not cause major inconvenience for the public or represent a threat to law and order.
Respondents were evenly split over the cost of the Summit and the resources earmarked for it, with some considering those costs to be appropriate while others argued that they should be cut. In particular, the most critical among them highlighted the need to cut the number of delegates attending the Summit and they consider annual meetings to be a waste, arguing that they should be replaced by such systems as video-conferences. Women and young people in particular were in favour of engaging in a cost-cutting exercise.
In connection with the possibility of expanding the Summit, some 41% of respondents argued that the G8 should share the burden of responsibility with the countries in the G5 group (Brasil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa), while 34% were in favor of that burden being shared with the United Nations and with developing countries. Only one respondent in five thought that responsibility should be shared with the European Union.
The website was visited by over 210,000 people (106,000 from Italy and 107,000 from abroad) while the survey was open.
Documents:
- Breakdown of the results of the online survey
