According to Google Trends the answer is Ethiopians. Between 2004 and now they score the highest in the search index for the word “democracy,” at least among the English speaking countries of the world. Ethiopians have lived under successive military and quasi-military dictatorships since the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974.
It is also interesting to see the relative concentration of searches for the word in eastern and southern Africa compared not only to other regions in Africa but also to the rest of the world. Besides Ethiopia, the other countries in Africa with a high search index have recently had somewhat high levels of political contestation through reasonably competitive elections.
Filed under: africa, african politics, democracy, Ethiopia, Politics Tagged: Addis Ababa, africa, amharic, Bole, democracy, democracy and elections in Africa, democracy in ethiopia, eastern and Southern Africa, elections, Emperor Haile Selassie, haile selassie, hailemariam Desalegn, meles zenawi, Mengistu Hailemariam, political competition in Africa, tigray, Tigrinya
