The National regularly writes about the results of the annual Arab Youth Survey.

A variety of questions are posed to people in the 18-to-24 age group across North Africa and the Middle East, the Arab homeland, and the results are collated. The total number of youths surveyed was 3,500, including 300 from the UAE.

One result in the 2015 survey is particularly eye-catching:

A plurality of responders agreed with the statement: “Democracy will never work in the region.”

A total of 39 percent agreed with that statement; 36 percent disagreed; 25 percent were unsure.

This supports a sense that, in the region (the world?), the idea of one-man, one-vote is going out of fashion.

Those who interpret the numbers suggest the results of the Arab Spring of 2011, which led to social unrest in many countries in the region, is the reason why Arab youth are less than enthusiastic about democracy as a method for governance.

The people behind the survey said that, in 2011, 92 percent of those surveyed said “living in a democracy” was their most important desire.

But after the upheaval and lack of a happy outcome in many of the Arab Spring states, from Algeria to Bahrain — and especially Syria, Libya, Egypt and Yemen — the enthusiasm for democracy clearly has taken a hit.

The idea of a benevolent authoritarian government seems to have come back in vogue. That would include the UAE, which is ruled by royal families.

On the other hand, the rate of those who said democracy could work was 44 percent in the UAE, the highest figure for any country surveyed, aside from Kuwait (58 percent) and Iraq (48 percent).

One Emirati who was surveyed said: “We have a ruling family here and I think our country is better off than democratic countries.”

It probably is safe to say that when he/she referred to “democratic countries” the idea probably was more “Iraq” than “Western Europe” or “North America.”

Those other areas are far away, and even some of them seem to be struggling to produce real consensus when it comes to governance, or so it seems from the other side of the world.

The questions that polarize the U.S. and lead to toxic political discourse, for example … are not a concern in places were elections do not really matter.

The notions of security and prosperity seem to trump the idea of going to the polls.