As Americans head to the polls this November, their values and basic beliefs are more polarized along partisan lines than at any point in the past 25 years. Unlike in 1987, when this series of surveys began, the values gap between Republicans and Democrats is now greater than gender, age, race or class divides.

Overall, there has been much more stability than change across the 48 political values measures that the Pew Research Center has tracked since 1987. But the average partisan gap has nearly doubled over this 25-year period — from 10% in 1987 to 18% in the new study.

Nearly all of the increases have occurred during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Looking ahead to the 2012 election, the largest divides between committed supporters of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are over the scope and role of government in the economic realm.

These are among the principal findings of the latest Pew Research Center American Values survey, conducted April 4-15, 2012, among 3,008 adults nationwide. The values project, which began in 1987 and has been updated 14 times since then, tracks a wide range of the public’s fundamental beliefs. These questions do not measure opinions about specific policy or political questions, but rather the underlying values that ultimately shape those opinions.

Read the full report which includes detailed findings on these subjects:

• Understanding the Partisan Divide Over American Values
• Demographics and American Values
• Values about Economic Inequality and Individual Opportunity
• Values about Government and the Social Safety Net
• Values about Business, Wall Street and Labor
• Religious and Social Values
• Values about Foreign Policy and Terrorism
• Values about Immigration and Race
• Trends in Party Affiliation

See also a slideshow summarizing the survey’s key findings and an interactive database containing the full history of the values studies.

Public support for government loans to major U.S. automakers are viewed more positively today than in the fall of 2009, but there has been less change in opinions about other major economic policies such as the federal loans to banks and financial institutions during the 2008 financial crisis and President Obama’s economic stimulus plan.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Feb. 8-12 finds that 56% say the loans the government made to GM and Chrysler were mostly good for the economy, while 38% say the loans to the automakers were mostly bad for the economy. In 2009, 57% viewed the loans negatively while 37% regarded them as mostly good for the economy.

A majority of Americans said in a February 2010 survey that the government was wrong to extend loans to banks and financial institutions through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), and that opposition remains about the same today. Opposition to the Obama administration’s 2009 economic stimulus plan is less pronounced than it was two years ago, but a plurality of Americans still disapprove of it.

Read the full report for detailed results about these economic policy issues. The report also contains findings on the public’s opinion of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would carry oil from Canada’s oil sands to refineries in Texas, and Americans’ mixed views regarding government regulation of business.

Slightly more than half (53%) say that the United States “is one of the greatest countries in the world, along with some others.” Fewer (38%) say that the U.S. “stands above all other countries in the world.” Just 8% think that “there are other countries that are better than the U.S.”

As in the past, the public is confident in the nation’s ability to solve major problems. Nearly six-in-ten (57%) say that “as Americans, we can always find ways to solve our problems and get what we want.” Just 37% say “this country can’t solve many of its important problems.” Opinions are little changed from previous surveys. In 2004, 59% expressed confidence in the American people’s ability to tackle major problems.

These findings come from the Pew Research Center’s 2011 Political Typology survey, conducted in February and March and released May 4, 2011. The survey shows wide partisan differences in views of America’s global standing: 52% of Republicans say the U.S. stands above all other countries compared with just a third each of Democrats and independents.

Age Differences over U.S. Global Standing

Across all political and demographic groups, large majorities say that the United States either ranks among the greatest nations or stands above all others. Very few — no more than about 10% — say that there are other countries that are better than the U.S.

Young people are less likely than older Americans to say that the U.S. stands above all other nations. Only about a quarter (27%) of those younger than age 30 say the U.S. stands above all other nations. That compares with 38% of those ages 30 to 49, 40% of those 50 to 64 and half (50%) of those 65 and older.

Beyond the clear differences in views of the United States’ standing across parties, there also are divides within the Republican Party. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who agree with the Tea Party, 55% think the U.S. stands above all other countries compared with 42% of Republicans and GOP leaners who disagree with the Tea Party or have no opinion of the movement.

The Typology and U.S. Global Standing

The political typology sorts people into cohesive groups based on their values, political beliefs and partisan affiliation. Among the eight major typology groups, Staunch Conservatives — who are strongly anti-government and pro-business — are the only one in which a majority (67%) says that the U.S. stands above all other nations.

The other core Republican group — Main Street Republicans — are evenly split: 49% say the U.S. stands above all other countries while nearly as many (46%) say it is one of the greatest countries along with some others.

Majorities in the three core Democratic groups — Solid Liberals (62%), New Coalition Democrats (54%) and Hard-Pressed Democrats (52%) — say the U.S. is among the greatest countries, along with some others.

But New Coalition Democrats and Hard-Pressed Democrats — who are less affluent and include higher percentages of minorities than Solid Liberals — are more likely to view the U.S. as standing above all other countries. Roughly four-in-ten Hard-Pressed Democrats (42%) and New Coalition Democrats (40%) think the U.S. is superior to all other countries, compared with just 19% of Solid Liberals. Roughly one-in-five Solid Liberals (17%) say there are countries that are better than the U.S., the highest percentage of any typology group.

In opinions about whether the American people can solve major problems, the typology groups split mostly on economic, rather than partisan, lines. Republican-leaning Disaffecteds, the typology group hardest hit by the recession, are the least optimistic about the nation’s ability to solve major problems. Fully 56% of Disaffecteds say “this country can’t solve many of its important problems.”

Nearly half (48%) of Hard-Pressed Democrats — another economically stressed group — express skepticism about the country’s ability to deal with major problems. But majorities in all other typology groups say that Americans are able to solve their problems and get what they want.

Find the full 2011 Political Typology  report including topline findings and methodology at people-press.org.

With the economy still struggling and the nation involved in multiple military operations overseas, the public’s political mood is fractious. In this environment, many political attitudes have become more doctrinaire at both ends of the ideological spectrum, a polarization that reflects the current atmosphere in Washington.

Yet at the same time, a growing number of Americans are choosing not to identify with either political party, and the center of the political spectrum is increasingly diverse. Rather than being moderate, many of these independents hold extremely strong ideological positions on issues such as the role of government, immigration, the environment and social issues. But they combine these views in ways that defy liberal or conservative orthodoxy.

For political leaders in both parties, the challenge is not only one of appeasing ideological and moderate “wings” within their coalitions, but rather holding together remarkably disparate groups, many of whom have strong disagreements with core principles that have defined each party’s political character in recent years.

The most visible shift in the political landscape since Pew Research’s previous political typology in early 2005 is the emergence of a single bloc of across-the-board conservatives. The long-standing divide between economic, pro-business conservatives and social conservatives has blurred. Today, Staunch Conservatives take extremely conservative positions on nearly all issues — on the size and role of government, on economics, foreign policy, social issues and moral concerns. Most agree with the Tea Party and even more very strongly disapprove of Barack Obama’s job performance. A second core group of Republicans — Main Street Republicans — also is conservative, but less consistently so.

On the left, Solid Liberals express diametrically opposing views from the Staunch Conservatives on virtually every issue. While Solid Liberals are predominantly white, minorities make up greater shares of New Coalition Democrats — who include nearly equal numbers 0f whites, African Americans and Hispanics — and Hard-Pressed Democrats, who are about a third African American. Unlike Solid Liberals, both of these last two groups are highly religious and socially conservative. New Coalition Democrats are distinguished by their upbeat attitudes in the face of economic struggles.

Independents have played a determinative role in the last three national elections. But the three groups in the center of the political typology have very little in common, aside from their avoidance of partisan labels. Libertarians and Post-Moderns are largely white, well-educated and affluent. They also share a relatively secular outlook on some social issues, including homosexuality and abortion. But Republican-oriented Libertarians are far more critical of government, less supportive of environmental regulations, and more supportive of business than are Post-Moderns, most of whom lean Democratic.

Disaffecteds, the other main group of independents, are financially stressed and cynical about politics. Most lean to the Republican Party, though they differ from the core Republican groups in their support for increased government aid to the poor. Another group in the center, Bystanders, largely consign themselves to the political sidelines and for the most part are not included in this analysis.

These are the principal findings of the political typology study by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, which sorts Americans into cohesive groups based on values, political beliefs, and party affiliation. The new study is based on two surveys with a combined sample of 3,029 adults, conducted Feb. 22-Mar. 14, 2011 and a smaller callback survey conducted April 7-10, 2011 with 1,432 of the same respondents.

Read the full report, take a quiz to find out which typology group you belong to, watch a video in which Pew Research staff describe the report and use an interactive feature to analyze the groups at the 2011 Political Typology page at people-press.org.

March 25, 2011 marks the 100-year anniversary of the notorious Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, a disaster widely credited with strengthening the still nascent labor union movement in the United States.¹ Francis Perkins, later Franklin D. Roosevelt’s secretary of labor, and the first woman appointed to a cabinet position, happened upon the scene of the fire as workers were jumping to their deaths to escape the blaze.² Perkins later called it “the day the New Deal began.”

The tragedy, the deadliest workplace disaster in New York City’s history prior to the Sept. 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks, caused the death of 146 garment workers. Mostly young immigrant women, they died from the fire or jumped to their deaths from the top three floors of the 10-story building. Many were unable to escape the inferno because the plant’s managers had locked doors to some exits and stairwells to prevent pilferage and unauthorized breaks from work.³ “141 MEN AND GIRLS DIE IN WAIST FACTORY FIRE” read the New York Times all-caps headline on a front-page article the following day, accompanied by grisly photographs of the event and aftermath.

Perkins later served as chief investigator of the commission charged with investigating factory conditions statewide. Following on the commission’s findings, the New York State Legislature passed labor protections for women and children and created a State Department of Labor to enforce them. Labor unions gradually gained strength over the following decades and, as part of FDR’s New Deal in the 1930s, strong worker protections were enacted into federal law, including the National Labor Relations Act. But even in the depths of the Depression, substantial numbers of Americans continued to have reservations about the impact of organized labor.

A Gallup poll in mid-1937 found 61% hoping that labor leader John L. Lewis would fail in his effort to organize Ford Motor Co. employees into a CIO labor union.⁴ Two years later in February 1939, Gallup found that, by a 51%-to-21% margin, the public favored requiring every union to obtain a permit from the federal government. A 1939 Roper poll found only 20% supporting always requiring workers to join unions, with 11% saying “sometimes” and 61% rejecting the idea outright.

Gallup and Roper opinion polls from the period show substantial majorities opposing mandatory union membership and favoring federal government controls on unions. In a March 1941 Gallup poll, still prior to the U.S. entry into World War II, 68% of Americans expressed the view that labor union leaders were not “helping the national defense production program as much as they should.” A 56%-majority thought business leaders were trying harder to help defense production compared with only 10% who gave labor leaders more credit for such effort.

Most tellingly, in an October poll that same year, fully 61% said they believed that many labor union leaders were communists and fully 74% deemed union leaders to be racketeers.

Still, despite these specific reservations, Gallup polls found that overall attitudes toward labor unions were positive in the late Depression years, with 72% saying they approved of unions in a 1937 poll. While that number declined to 61% in 1941, it re-climbed to a peak of 75% in a 1957 Gallup poll.

In subsequent years, support for unions, while generally positive, bobbed up and down. Gallup union-approval readings fell into the 50%-range in the high-inflation years of 1979 and 1981, but rebounded in the prosperous late 1990s, hitting a peak of 66% by the turn of the century. Similarly, Pew Research polls recorded attitudes toward labor unions peaking at 63% positive in March 2001.

More recently, as the economy has faltered, unions have lost support among the public. In 2009, Gallup found union approval dropping to 48%, an all-time low in its series dating back to the 1930s. Majorities in a February 2011 Pew Research survey still saw unions as having positive effects on the salary and benefits of covered workers (53%) as well as on working conditions for all American workers (51%) — although responses were divided on whether unions have a positive or negative effect on workplace productivity (34% to 30%) and increase the availability of good jobs in the U.S. (32% to 33%).

Most tellingly, however, the survey found only 45% expressing an overall favorable view of labor unions — close to the lowest level in a quarter century — while 41% held an unfavorable view. And while an early-March Pew Research survey found that the confrontation between public sector unions and Wisconsin’s governor appears to have strengthened support among those already holding a favorable view of labor unions (the percentage holding a very favorable view as opposed to a mostly favorable view rose seven points, with the increase concentrated among liberal Democrats and union households), the overall balance of positive and negative views remained unaltered.

Still, the legacy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory disaster lives on in the vastly improved working conditions and compensation of almost all Americans as well as the legislation enacted to enforce them. This advancement, Perkins observed in a 1964 lecture at Cornell University, “as I have thought of it afterwards, seems in some way to have paid the debt society owed to those children, those young people who lost their lives in the Triangle Fire. It’s their contribution to the people of New York that we have this really magnificent series of legislative acts to protect and improve the administration of the law regarding the protection of work people…”

<sub>1.Cornell University’s ILR School Kheel Center maintains an excellent website describing the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the conditions in the garment and other industries at that time it, and subsequent legislation and union activities that sought to prevent its recurrence. In honor of the 100-year anniversary of the fire, the site has been redesigned and many new and updated materials have been included.
2. Many years later in a 1964 lecture at Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Francis Perkins described her witnessing of the debacle, “I happened to have been visiting a friend [nearby] and we heard the engines and we heard the screams and rushed out and rushed over where we could see what the trouble was. We could see this building from Washington Square and the people had just begun to jump when we got there. They had been holding until that time, standing in the windowsills, being crowded by others behind them, the fire pressing closer and closer, the smoke closer and closer. Finally the men were trying to get out this thing that the firemen carry with them, a net to catch people if they do jump, there were trying to get that out and they couldn’t wait any longer. They began to jump. The window was too crowded and they would jump and they hit the sidewalk…. [T]he weight of the bodies was so great, at the speed at which they were traveling that they broke through the net. Every one of them was killed, everybody who jumped was killed. It was a horrifying spectacle.”
3. As Perkins recalled, the door to one possible escape route to the roof “had been locked by the employer himself because he feared that on a Saturday afternoon which he was working just before Easter on a lot of shirtwaists for the market, he feared that some of the people in the shop might stroll out over the roof exit with a few shirtwaists rolled up under their jackets or that somebody might come in and take a few shirtwaists. In other words, he was — I only know what he said on the stand — he was afraid he would be robbed either by his employees or by the outsider. Not so much by the outsider, mostly afraid of his employees.”
4. Unless otherwise indicated, historical public opinion polls cited were obtained from the Roper Center Public Opinion Archives.</sub>

In its Topic A feature for Sunday March 6, 2011, the Washington Post asked several experts who’s winning and who’s losing in the fight over public-employee unions. Here is Scott Keeter’s reply.

Public attitudes about labor unions have been largely stable since the start of the battles in Wisconsin and other states. A Pew Research poll last week found favorable opinions of unions outnumbering unfavorable opinions by a 47%-to-39% margin, essentially unchanged from a poll conducted in early February. But the battles have energized union households and liberal Democrats. Among both groups, very favorable attitudes about unions jumped sharply in the past few weeks.

Most polls have found majorities opposed to recent efforts to limit or eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees. A late February Pew Research poll about the Wisconsin dispute found 42% siding more with the public-employee unions than with the governor (31%). Despite recent Republican criticism of public-sector unions, Pew Research’s polling has found little difference in opinions about public-sector vs. private-sector unions.

Attitudes about all of the parties involved in labor disputes — governments, labor unions and businesses — are significantly more negative today than they were a decade ago. But half or more of the public believes that labor unions have had a positive impact on conditions for all American workers, and only a minority believes that union agreements give union workers unfair advantages. Still, the public has mixed views of the impact of unions on workplace productivity, the global competitiveness of U.S. companies and the availability of good jobs in the country.

See other responses to the Washington Post‘s Topic A query by Mike Lux, Dan Schnur, Ed Rogers, Howard Dean and David Bonior by reading the full article at washingtonpost.com.

The public remains deeply frustrated with the federal government, but fewer Americans say they are angry at government than did so last fall. Overall, the percentage saying they are angry with the federal government has fallen from 23% last September to 14% today, with much of the decline coming among Republicans and Tea Party supporters.

While anger at government has subsided, the public expresses no greater taste for political compromise today than it did last fall. As political leaders head into a tough political debate over the budget, 54% say they like elected officials who stick to their positions, while 40% prefer officials who make compromises with people they disagree with. This is virtually identical to the balance of opinion among registered voters last September.

By roughly two-to-one (63% vs. 32%), more Republicans say they like elected officials who stick to their positions rather than those who make compromises. About half of independents (53%) prefer politicians who stick to their positions compared with 41% who like elected officials who make compromises with people they disagree with. Democrats are evenly divided — 48% like elected officials who stick to their positions, 46% like those who compromise.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Feb. 22-Mar. 1 among 1,504 adults, finds a modest recovery in public trust in government from historic lows last year. Yet even with this uptick, the general mood remains overwhelmingly
negative.

Just 29% say they can trust the government in Washington to do what is right just about always or most of the time, up from 22% last March. About seven-in-ten (69%) say they trust the government only some of the time or never, compared with 76% a year ago.

The proportion of Republicans saying they can trust the government always or most of the time has increased from 13% to 24% over the past year; opinions among Democrats are unchanged over this period, at 34%.

The public continues to express negative views of Congress, as well as Republican and Democratic congressional leaders. Just 34% say they have a favorable opinion of Congress, up slightly from 26% a year ago; a majority (57%) has an unfavorable view. Comparable percentages say they approve of the job performance of Republican (36%) and Democratic (33%) congressional leaders.

By contrast, Barack Obama’s job ratings remain positive. Currently, 51% approve of Barack Obama’s job performance while 39% disapprove. That is little changed from early February, but Obama’s ratings have shown significant improvement since last fall, when about as many approved as disapproved.

The survey finds a continuing rise in support for same-sex marriage since 2009. Currently, 45% say they favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally while 46% are opposed. In Pew Research surveys conducted in 2010, 42% favored and 48% opposed gay marriage and in 2009, just 37% backed same-sex marriage while 54% were opposed.

Over the same period, there has been movement toward a liberal position on abortion. In 2009, for the first time in many years, the public was evenly divided over whether abortion should be legal or illegal in all or most cases. But support for legal abortion has recovered and now stands at about the same level as in 2008 (55% then, 54% today).

Independents have become more supportive of both gay marriage and legal abortion since 2009. Roughly half of independents (51%) now favor same-sex marriage, up from 37% in 2009. And 58% of independents say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared with 47% in Pew Research Center surveys two years ago.

The public’s overall views of labor unions have changed little through the lengthy stalemate between Wisconsin’s governor and the state’s public employee unions over collective bargaining rights. About half (47%) say they have a favorable opinion of labor unions compared with 39% who have an unfavorable opinion. In early February, 45% expressed a favorable opinion of unions and 41% said they had an unfavorable view. However, liberal Democrats and people in union households are more likely to say they have a very favorable opinion of labor unions than they were just weeks ago.

For more on public attitudes toward labor unions, see Pew Research’s Feb. 17 report. For more on views of the showdown in Wisconsin between the governor and public employee unions, see this report, released Feb. 28.

Continue reading the full report — including the topline questionnaire and survey methodology — at people-press.org, for an in-depth look at:

• Trust in government
• Views on political compromise
• Attitudes toward gay marriage, abortion, gun control and marijuana legalization
• Opinions of labor unions

By a modest margin, more say they back Wisconsin’s public employee unions rather than the state’s governor in their continuing dispute over collective bargaining rights.

Roughly four-in-ten (42%) say they side more with the public employee unions, while 31% say they side more with the governor, Scott Walker, according to the latest Pew Research Center survey, conducted Feb. 24-27 among 1,009 adults.

In Washington, meanwhile, prospects for an imminent government shutdown decreased as Republicans and Democrats neared a short-term budget deal.

However, the public is divided over who would be more to blame if the federal government were to shut down as a result of a budget impasse: 36% say Republicans would be more to blame, 35% say the Obama administration and 17% volunteer that both would be to blame. This question was asked jointly by the Pew Research and The Washington Post.

Opinions are notably different today than they were the last time a budget battle threatened a government shutdown. In November 1995, a Washington Post/ABC News survey asked a similar question and found that 46% said a possible government shutdown would be mainly the Republicans’ fault; just 27% said the bulk of the blame would fall on the Clinton administration.

The differences in opinions between now and then may well be more linked to changes in views of the GOP House speaker rather than the Democratic president. Obama’s current approval rating of 49% is about the same as Bill Clinton’s in October 1995 (48%).

But the current House speaker, John Boehner, is viewed far less negatively than Newt Gingrich was in 1995. In December 2010, 28% expressed a favorable opinion of Boehner while 25% had an unfavorable view. In August 1995, a few months before the budget impasse, 30% had a favorable view of Gingrich while 54% had an unfavorable opinion.

Democrats, Young, Less Affluent Side Strongly With Unions

Democrats overwhelmingly side with the government employee unions in the ongoing dispute in Wisconsin. Two- thirds (67%) say this, compared with just 12% who say they side more with the governor. About half of Republicans (53%) say they side more with Gov. Walker; 17% say they side more with the public employee unions. Independents are evenly divided (39% side more with the unions, 34% more with the governor).

Among those ages 18 to 29, nearly half (46%) say they side more with the public employee unions, while 13% say they side with the governor. Among those ages 65 and older, the balance is reversed — but the gap more narrow (45% say they side more with the governor, 33% with the unions).

While whites are nearly evenly divided (38% unions, 36% governor), non-white people are much more likely to say they side more with the unions that represent public employee workers (51% vs. 19%).

And while those with household incomes of $75,000 or more are divided (36% side more with the unions, 40% with the governor), those earning less clearly side more with the government employee unions. Among those with family income of less than $30,000, 46% say they side more with the unions, while 20% say they side more with the governor.

Partisan Divide on Potential Blame for Federal Shutdown

Looking at the possibility of a federal government shutdown if Republicans and the Obama administration cannot agree on a budget, partisans on both sides would put the bulk of the blame on the opposing party.

About seven-in-ten Republicans (69%) say the administration would be most to blame. Just 8% would blame their own party’s leaders. More than six-in-ten Democrats (63%) say congressional Republicans would be most responsible for any shutdown, while 11% say the administration would be most to blame. Independents are divided: 32% say Republicans and 37% say the administration would be mostly to blame. Among all three groups, 17% say both would share the blame equally.

In November 1995, just days before a standoff between congressional Republicans and the Clinton administration led to a partial government shutdown, most Democrats (71%) said Republicans would be responsible for any shutdown, while a smaller majority of Republicans (57%) put the blame on Clinton. Unlike today, many more independents said they would blame the Republicans (46%) than the Clinton administration (24%).

In early January 1996, with the government in a partial shutdown, the public continued to put more blame on the Republicans, according to a second Washington Post/ABC News survey. At that point, a plurality (44%) said the GOP was mainly to blame for the shutdown, while 25% said the Clinton administration was mainly to blame and 24% blamed both sides.

View the topline questionnaire and survey methodology at people-press.org.