Socialism viewed positively by 36% of Americans

[sumit1207]

http://www.gallup.com/poll/125645/Socialism-Viewed-Positively-Americans.aspx

PRINCETON, NJ -- More than one-third of Americans (36%) have a positive image of "socialism," while 58% have a negative image. Views differ by party and ideology, with a majority of Democrats and liberals saying they have a positive view of socialism, compared to a minority of Republicans and conservatives.



"Democrats and Republicans agree in their ratings of several of the terms, but differ significantly in their ratings of others -- in particular, capitalism, the federal government, and socialism."
"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%).



Democrats and Republicans agree in their ratings of several of the terms, but differ significantly in their ratings of others -- in particular, capitalism, the federal government, and socialism.



In similar fashion, there is little distinction across ideological groups -- conservatives, moderates, and liberals -- in the ratings of several of these terms, but more significant differences in response to others, such as big business, the federal government, and socialism.



These differences will be discussed in the sections that follow.

Socialism

Socialism had the lowest percentage positive rating and the highest negative rating of any term tested. Still, more than a third of Americans say they have a positive image of socialism.

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.

There are significant differences in reactions to "socialism" across ideological and partisan groups:

A majority of 53% of Democrats have a positive image of socialism, compared to 17% of Republicans.
Sixty-one percent of liberals say their image of socialism is positive, compared to 39% of moderates and 20% of conservatives.

Shocked? I certainly am. Do you think the constant labeling of Obama as socialist by the Right has made the term seem comparatively mild to Americans? Maybe the thought process is "Huh, so this is socialism? I guess it's not so extreme."

 

[Arwon]

Yeah I think the danger of labelling perfectly sensible, moderate things that are done in perfectly sensible, moderate countries as "socialism" is that it loses whatever power as an epithet that it once had.

To me it smacks of a false dichotomy between socialism and capitalism, people seem to have the idea that government intervention is necessarily "socialist" which is just not true. Governments can be very interventionist and do it in utterly capitalist ways. Hell, government lawmaking power is needed to even make markets work properly.

So what I reckon what people are actually saying is "more government regulatory power and interventions!" rather than "nationalise the means of production!"

 

[I'm Cleo!]

Shocked? I certainly am. Do you think the constant labeling of Obama as socialist by the Right has made the term seem comparatively mild to Americans? Maybe the thought process is "Huh, so this is socialism? I guess it's not so extreme."

Yes, I think it's exactly that. There are a lot of young people who like Obama and think his policies are sensible, but lack the political background to understand fully the arguments thrown back and during the last election. They hear everybody calling Obama a "socialist," so they say, "Yeah, I guess I think socialism is good."

Cleo

 

[bigdog5994]

stupid Americans

 

[warpus]

Overuse a term and it starts becoming meaningless and turns into a talking point that has no substance.. freedom, socialism, hammertime...

 

[willemvanoranje]

I'm not really shocked, since it's all about what the person himself understands by socialism. If you see socialism as Soviet-Union style states, then I'd be shocked too. The fact that so many people have a positive view indicates to me that they are thinking more of a social-democracy type of thing. Maybe not as extreme as Scandinavia (although that would be totally fine to me), but more in the direction of Western Europe.

 

[Ansar]

Since supporting Obama is apparently supporting socialism, I guess more than 36% of this country is socialist.

 

[Lord Baal]

I agree with what other people have said here, that the labelling of Obamqa as a socialist has made the word more mundane and less threatening to the average American. It'd be interesting to see what connotations 'communism' had.

 

[BasketCase]

I'm not really shocked, since it's all about what the person himself understands by socialism. If you see socialism as Soviet-Union style states, then I'd be shocked too.

Socialists themselves generally don't see socialism that way. They see the Soviet Union as a corruption of the concept.

 

[West 36]

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.

A majority of 53% of Democrats have a positive image of socialism, compared to 17% of Republicans./QUOTE]
The lack of definition isn't surprising, I'm sure less than those 36% know what it really is, what surprises me is the 17% of Republicans, which I don't understand. The Dems here probably have the (hugely) mistaken belief that Obama actually is socialist and that the dems are actively pursuing it. Which is stupid. It's still surprising as a whole. The misunderstanding that is probably there make me ambivalent to this, though I suppose it's better than the knee-jerk reaction he word usually gets.

 

[amadeus]

Free enterprise and entrepreneurship viewed positively by nearly 85% of Americans

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Free enterprise and entrepreneurship viewed positively by nearly 85% of Americans

Neither of which are incompatible with socialism. It is only such in the strawman world of people like you.

 

[JerichoHill]

define the terms rather then let the definition be determined by the person if you want an accurate survey. I bet most folks are thinking "France"

 

[amadeus]

Neither of which are incompatible with socialism. It is only such in the strawman world of people like you.

So what you're saying is that in socialism, the means of production are held privately and this is not incompatible with the socialist system. I see.

 

[warpus]

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

So what you're saying is that in socialism, the means of production are held privately and this is not incompatible with the socialist system. I see.

Entrepreneurship was first identified by Karl Marx as being the driving force behind technological (and thus social) advancement.

Free Enterprise, or the Free Market, describes an economic environment devoid of subsidies and market modifiers which operates by supply and demand.

Neither of these things mandate that means of production are held privately.

 

[classical_hero]

Well according to Socialists, there has never been a true Socialistic society, so I am confused as to what that term actually means, since we have reference to put it towards

 

[amadeus]

That cartoon is misleading... here's government spending as a percentage of GDP since 1950 (I cut out World War II for obvious reasons.)

 

[warpus]

I don't understand what your graph has to do with the one I posted.

Yours is GDP and government spending, mine is tax rate.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Neither of which are incompatible with socialism. It is only such in the strawman world of people like you.

Most of them are still fighting the Cold War. Most of them seem to believe McCarthy-era propaganda that all forms of socialism must be inherently evil.