Less people believe in capitalism: BBC poll

A new survey conducted 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall shows nearly a quarter of people across 27 countries worldwide feel capitalism is gravely flawed.

According to a global poll carried out by GlobeScan for the BBC World Service and published Monday, only 11% of those questioned across the countries said that the free-market capitalism was working well.

The survey during which 29,033 adults were questioned shows that almost a quarter - 23% of those who responded - believe the capitalism is seriously failing.

That is the view of 43% in France, 38% in Mexico and 35% in Brazil.

The United States and Pakistan were the only two countries where more than one in five agreed that capitalism worked well in its current form, the poll said.

The majority of respondents in 15 out of 27 nations wanted their governments to be more active in owning or directing control of their nation's major industries.

"It appears that the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 may not have been the crushing victory for free-market capitalism that it seemed at the time," said Doug Miller, GlobeScan chairman. "Particularly after the events of the last 12 months."

The survey comes after the worst global financial crisis since the 1930s Great Depression and amid celebrations for the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which suddenly ended the Cold War.

Meanwhile 51 per cent of the people attending in the poll believed that the problems with capitalism could be solved with more regulation and reform.