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AMERICAN.COM

A Magazine of Ideas

The Atlantic Divide

By Karlyn Bowman From the March/April 2008 Issue

Americans and Europeans on religion, happiness, government, and war.

When he visited the United States in the 1830s, Alexis de Tocqueville called the new nation ‘exceptional,’ by which he meant qualitatively different. Some of the differences he identified appear in polls today. Americans are more religious, more satisfied with their personal lives and their jobs, more wary of government, and more comfortable with the use of military force than are Europeans.

RELIGIOUS BELIEF

Religious belief.jpg  Religious belief2.jpg

Source: Harris Interactive/Financial Times, November-December 2006; Pew Global Attitudes, 2002.

SATISFACTION 

Satisfaction.jpgPersonal situation.jpg

Source: (U.S.) Harris Interactive, 2005; (European countries), Eurobarometer 62, 2004.

Job satisfaction.jpg    Good place for business.jpg

Source: International Social Survey Project, 2005; Harris Interactive/Financial Times, 2007.

GOVERNMENT'S ROLE

Government’s role.jpg Government role image.jpg

What is most important.jpg

Source: Pew Global Attitudes, 2002.

FOREIGN POLICY

Foreign Policy.jpg

Source: Transatlantic Trends, 2007.

Image credit: illustrations by Otto Steininger.

 

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