World: U.S. gets mixed reviews
Most Americans think our image ranks high in the world’s eyes.
According to a February 2019 Gallup poll, American perception of the U.S. world image is the best since 2003: 58% of Americans say the U.S. rates “very” or “somewhat” favorably in world's eyes, and 45% are satisfied with our position in the world (with Republicans more likely than Democrats to see the U.S. as having a positive world image).
That’s what we think they think.
What do they really think? It depends.
Pew Research’s 2021 Global Attitudes Survey polled nearly 19,000 people in 17 nations with advanced economies (including Canada, Europe, and Asia) from February through May 2021, highlighting the complexity of our world image. Overall, the consensus is that we don’t rank high in international esteem for the state of democracy in general, but there are things they admire.
Most — including we — believe the U.S. is “no longer” a good model for democracy. Depending on the nation, only 8 to 32% of people in other strong nations see the U.S. as a “good” model for democracy; about 50 to 72% say we “used to be a good example, but not in recent years;” and 8 to 27% say the U.S. has never been a model democracy.
Americans apparently share the not-anymore view, with 72% of us saying U.S. democracy used to be a good example for others to follow, but isn’t now.
Our technology, military, and entertainment rank high. These three represent the most positive elements of America’s world image. A median of 72% surveyed say U.S. technology is the best or above average, 69% gave high marks to our military, and 71% think American entertainment is the best or above average.
Hooray for Hollywood.
Standard of living, not so much. Especially given the trends in pricing (knowing we pay more for food here than our family in England), along with health care costs and access problems, it shouldn’t be surprising that only 33% see our standard of living as above average and 65% see it as below average.
Our health care system gets poor reviews. Except for Taiwan, Singapore and Japan — where close to a third surveyed ranked it well, an overwhelming majority see our health care system as poor, with 89% ranking it below average by comparison to other developed nations. A median 66% see it as “the worst,” 23% as “below average,” and only 11 percent as above average.
Discrimination is seen as a big problem. We’re not the only nation with race and ethnicity issues, but ours are seen as thornier. This survey was conducted less than a year after worldwide protests against the murder of George Floyd erupted and reactions were still fresh. Large majorities say discrimination against people based on race or ethnicity is a serious problem in the U.S., and in most countries, majorities say it is a “very serious” problem. Even in prior Pew surveys majorities “consistently” say discrimination is worse in the U.S. than in their country.
By us, too. Americans don’t exactly disagree. According to Pew 74% of Americans think discrimination based on race or ethnicity is either a “very serious” (42%) or somewhat serious (32%) problem.
But our colleges are “above average.” To end on a positive, 59% of outsiders surveyed think American colleges and universities are above average (while only 47% of Americans agree with that).
And American pop culture still reigns supreme. Especially in the 18-29 age group, up to 84% see American pop culture as tops. Do people still say “tops?”
See the full Pew survey at https://pewrsr.ch/3tegXMl. The Gallup survey is at https://bit.ly/3zLAAwp.
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Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Email Sholeh@cdapress.com.