Most global opinion leaders say people in their countries hold favorable views of the United States, in spite of their negative perceptions of U.S. power. This is particularly true in Western Europe, where 81% of influentials say publics have a very or mostly favorable impression of the United States. Only in the Islamic world are […]
Report Summary America’s view of the world changed dramatically, and perhaps permanently, on Sept. 11. But in order to measure the nature and extent of these changes it is important to understand where attitudes toward international issues stood before the attacks occurred. A three-month survey by the Pew Research Center, in collaboration with the Council […]
Hard Times and Hard Policies During the Cold War, public debate over foreign policy focused on the confrontation with the Soviet Union. There was widespread support for the strategy of containment-disagreements were essentially over tactics. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the display of overwhelming American military power in the Persian Gulf War, […]
MELISSA ROGERS: Good morning. My name is Melissa Rogers, and I am Executive Director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Welcome to “A Call for Reckoning: Religion and the Death Penalty.” We look forward to a lively and engaging discussion on this important issue. Let me say a special word of thanks […]
Partisan Gap on Missile Defense Opinions on missile defense have remained fairly consistent as the debate has heated up over the past few months. The 51%-38% margin of support for the idea is similar to the results of a survey in February, when a comparable question was asked. In the current poll, nearly one-in-three Americans […]
Environmental Balancing Act Most Americans (54%) express at least some confidence in Bush’s ability to balance environmental and economic demands, with 21% expressing “a lot” of confidence in the president in this area. This is comparable to how the public viewed Clinton’s environmental leadership. In 1997, 61% had some confidence in Clinton’s ability to balance […]
GOP Narrows Issues Gap Republicans have made considerable headway over the past two years in cutting into the Democrats’ issues advantage. The public now rates the two parties about even for their ideas on taxes, education and the global economy. The Democrats narrowly led the GOP on global economic issues in January 1999 (38%-33%) and […]
Introduction and Summary Most Americans continue to support free trade, in spite of last fall’s destructive protests in Seattle against the World Trade Organization (WTO). But the public wants international trade agreements to protect jobs and economic growth at home, and improve the global environment. And while the nation backs free trade in principle, there […]
An overwhelming 81% say they are optimistic about their lives and the lives of their families over the next half century; 40% consider themselves very optimistic. These optimists tend to be young, college educated and have higher than average incomes. Among Americans under age 30, 85% report feeling positive about their futures, compared to 72% […]