Capitalism, Socialism, and Public Opinion 2021

 Jeffrey M. Jones at Gallup:

Majorities of Republicans and Democrats have positive opinions of capitalism, but Republicans rate it higher. Whereas roughly seven in 10 Republicans and Republican leaners have viewed capitalism positively since 2010, about half of Democrats have done so. This year, 72% of Republicans and 52% of Democrats have a positive image of capitalism.

The two partisan groups' opinions of socialism diverge even more, with 14% of Republicans and 65% of Democrats saying they have a positive image of it. Democrats' opinions of socialism have gotten slightly more positive over the years, moving from 53% in 2010 and 2012 to over 60% in the past two surveys. Republicans have become slightly less positive toward socialism than they were in the initial surveys.

Would Vote For...

Lydia Saad at Gallup:

More than nine in 10 Americans say they would vote for a presidential candidate nominated by their party who happened to be black, Catholic, Hispanic, Jewish or a woman. Such willingness drops to eight in 10 for candidates who are evangelical Christians or are gays or lesbians. Between six and seven in 10 would vote for someone who is under 40 years of age, over 70, a Muslim or an atheist.

Just one group tested -- socialists -- receives majority opposition. Less than half of Americans, 45%, say they would vote for a socialist for president, while 53% say they would not.

Support for Socialism

From Axios:

A Harris poll for "Axios on HBO" finds that socialism is gaining popularity: 4 in 10 Americans say they would prefer living in a socialist country over a capitalist one.

Why it matters: Socialism is losing its Soviet-era stigma, especially among women.

Popular Democratic socialists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders are bringing new life and meaning to the term.

55% of women between 18 and 54 would prefer to live in a socialist country than a capitalist country.

But a majority of men prefer to live in a capitalist country.

The big picture: "It's been a truth of American politics for decades that women are to the left of men, and I think that's playing out in this poll," Axios' Felix Salmon noted on "Axios on HBO."

Between the lines: As the Harris poll results below show, the public has varying levels of agreement on what exactly constitutes a socialist political system.

1. Universal healthcare: 76%
2. Tuition free education: 72%
3. Living wage: 68%
4. State-controlled economy: 66%
5. State control and regulation of private property : 61%
6. High taxes for the rich: 60%
7. State-controlled media and communication: 57%
8. Strong environmental regulations: 56%
9. High public spending: 55%
10. Government ’’democratizes’’ private businesses — that is, gives workers control over them — to the greatest extent possible: 52%
11. System dependent on dictatorship: 49%
12. Workers own and control their places of employment: 48%
13. Democratically-elected government: 46%

Survey: More Government, Yes; Socialism, No

Jeffrey M. Jones and Lydia Saad:

Since 2010, the percentage of Americans saying government should do more to solve the country's problems has increased 11 percentage points, to 47%, and the percentage wanting government to take active steps to improve people's lives is up eight points, to 42%. Gallup also finds a nine-point increase -- to 25% -- in the percentage who would prefer to have more government services and higher taxes rather than the alternatives of less government services and less taxes, or no change to the current balance.

These trends offer a mixed picture on perceptions of government regulation of business, one of the core tenets of socialism. On the one hand, a scant 28% say there is too little government regulation, unchanged from 2010. On the other, 53% now agree with the statement that business will harm society if it is not regulated, up from 45% saying this in 2010.

As noted, since 2010 there has been no meaningful change in the percentage holding positive views of socialism per se, holding steady at just under 40%.

Understanding Socialism

Frank Newport at Gallup:

When asked to explain their understanding of the term "socialism," 17% of Americans define it as government ownership of the means of production, half the number who defined it this way in 1949 when Gallup first asked about Americans' views of the term. Americans today are most likely to define socialism as connoting equality for everyone, while others understand the term as meaning the provision of benefits and social services, a modified form of communism, or a conception of socialism as people being social and getting along with one another. About a quarter of Americans were not able to give an answer.

This Place Doesn't Turn Out Socialists

"This place doesn't turn out socialists."  -- Soviet agent Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys) in the pilot of The Americans.

Gallup finds that 96 percent of Americans have a positive image of small business, and only 25 percent have a positive image of socialism.

Even though Bernie Sanders, a self-described "Democratic socialist," has generated strong support for his presidential campaign, Americans' image of socialism is no better now than it was six years ago. Thirty-five percent of Americans have a positive view of the term socialism, similar to what was found in 2012 and 2010. The 60% who have a positive view of capitalism is also unchanged from six years ago.

Sanders and Socialism

Edward Luce writes at The Financial Times that Bernie Sanders's candidacy has significance beyond the Democratic race.

Socialism found no audience in the US because most Americans felt they were middle class. High rates of social mobility gave most people the sense that their society was exceptional — and rightly so. As Richard Hofstadter, the US historian, said: “It has been our fate as a nation not to have ideologies but to be one.”

That is now in question. As recently as 2008, 63 per cent of Americans identified as upper middle or middle class. That has fallen to 51 per cent. Meanwhile, the share of Americans who self-identify as “working and lower class”, according to Gallup, has risen from 35 per cent to 48 per cent since 2008. Perhaps fittingly, the share of Americans who identify as upper class is 1 per cent. That number hasn’t changed. But the belief that they are rigging the system is now mainstream.

To be clear, I am not forecasting a red dawn in the US. It is hard to imagine even a small portion of Mr Sanders’s agenda being enacted. But the rise of the Democratic left is every bit as real as the Tea Party’s surge among Republicans. Until recently, political scientists talked of “asymmetric polarisation” — meaning Republicans were moving more to the right than Democrats were moving left. Now Democrats are catching up. Meanwhile, more and more Americans profess intolerance for other people’s political beliefs. Elections are generally won in the centre. But it is smaller than it used to be. By US traditions, next year’s election is likely to present an unusually stark clash of ideologies. Whatever else he does from here, Mr Sanders has already ensured that.

Capitalism, Socialism, and Public Opinion, 2015

YouGov reports:

YouGov's latest research shows that when Americans are asked whether they have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of socialism and capitalism, capitalism comes out on top. 52% of Americans have a favorable view of capitalism, while only 26% have a favorable view of socialism. Among younger Americans, however, attitudes are a lot more divided. 36% of under-30s have a positive view of socialism, while 39% have a positive view of capitalism. Among over-65s, who came of age at the height of the Cold War, only 15% look upon socialism favorably while 59% have a like capitalism.

Democrats (43%) are also much more likely than either independents (22%) or Republicans (9%) to have a favorable view of socialism. Democrats, in fact, are as likely to have a favorable view of capitalism (43%) as socialism. While only 9% of Republicans see socialism in a positive light, 79% have a good view of capitalism.

Some caution is in order.  It is likely that many respondents have only a hazy understanding of what the terms mean.

Democrats and Republicans Diverge on Key Terms

Previous posts have looked at the way Americans react to various terms in economics and politics. Gallup reports:

Exemplifying a major partisan divide in modern politics, Democrats react significantly more positively to the term "federal government" than they do to the term "capitalism," while the opposite is true for Republicans. But both Democrats and Republicans are highly positive about the terms "small business," "free enterprise," and "entrepreneurs."

These findings are based on a Nov. 18-19 update of a January 2010 Gallup poll question asking respondents if they had a positive or negative image of each of seven economically related terms.

 

Capitalism, Socialism, and Public Opinion, 2011

Our chapter on public opinion looks at political ideologies.  Our chapter on civic culture notes that socialism has never taken deep root in the United States.  The Pew Research Center reports on both topics:

The recent Occupy Wall Street protests have focused public attention on what organizers see as the excesses of America's free market system, but perceptions of capitalism -- and even of socialism -- have changed little since early 2010 despite the recent tumult.

The American public's take on capitalism remains mixed, with just slightly more saying they have a positive (50%) than a negative (40%) reaction to the term. That's largely unchanged from a 52% to 37% balance of opinion in April 2010.Socialism is a negative for most Americans, but certainly not all. Six-in-ten (60%) say they have a negative reaction to the word; 31% have a positive reaction. Those numbers are little changed from when the question was last asked in April 2010.

Read the full report for more details on the survey as well as public perceptions about "Libertarian," "Liberal" and "Conservative."

From the full report:

The American public remains divided over the word libertarian, with 38% offering a positive reaction, 37% a negative reaction, and 24% offering that they don’t have a reaction either way.

The steepest divide in reactions to the term libertarian are not political but generational. By a 50% to 28% margin, people under age 30 have more positive than negative feelings toward the termlibertarian. Views are more split among those age 30-64, while those age 65 and older offer more negative (43%) than positive (25%) reactions.

Capitalism, Socialism, and Public Opinion

In our chapter on civic culture, we note that American individualism has historically translated into a reluctance to embrace socialism. We also mention this point in our chapter on economic policy. New data from Gallup confirm the point:

Socialism" was one of seven terms included in a Jan. 26-27 Gallup poll. Americans were asked to indicate whether their top-of-mind reactions to each were positive or negative. Respondents were not given explanations or descriptions of the terms.

Americans are almost uniformly positive in their reactions to three terms: small business, free enterprise, and entrepreneurs. They are divided on big business and the federal government, with roughly as many Americans saying their view is positive as say it is negative. Americans are more positive than negative on capitalism (61% versus 33%) and more negative than positive on socialism (36% to 58%).

But in our chapter on public opinion, we note that pollsters must be cautious about assuming that the public has a great deal of knowledge about political terms. Gallup notes:

Exactly how Americans define "socialism" or what exactly they think of when they hear the word is not known. The research simply measures Americans' reactions when a survey interviewer reads the word to them -- an exercise that helps shed light on connotations associated with this frequently used term.