Posted on 02/10/2003 8:19:20 AM PST by ex-Texan
Americans' Opinions of France Drop to New Low Germany and North Korea also rated more unfavorably
by Frank Newport
GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans have a sharply more unfavorable image of France than they have had at any point over the past decade. Favorable opinions of the country have dropped 20 points in the last year, while unfavorable opinions have risen by 17 points. Americans' attitudes toward Germany, which, like France, has balked at approving the U.S. position on the necessity of military action against Iraq, have also become substantially more negative since last year. The image of North Korea in the minds of Americans, already quite negative, has become even more so this year compared to last.
These conclusions are based on trends in country ratings included in the annual Gallup Poll Social Series Update on World Affairs, conducted Feb. 3-6. The survey included a question asking Americans to give their opinions of a list of 26 countries. The American public's attitudes toward most of these countries can be compared to surveys conducted in February of the last 2 years, and in many instances to surveys stretching back a decade or more.
Although survey respondents were asked to rate each country using a 4-point scale (very favorable, mostly favorable, mostly unfavorable, or very unfavorable), the analysis here is based mainly on a "net favorable" rating that subtracts the percentage of Americans rating a country unfavorably from the percentage rating it favorably.
These net favorable ratings range this year from a +83% for Great Britain to a –85% for Iraq. (The complete ratings for each country are displayed at the bottom of this article.)
The general structure of American public opinion about the 26 countries is roughly similar to where it has been in previous years. English-speaking allies like Great Britain and Canada rate at the top of the list, while the three countries President George W. Bush identified as comprising the "axis of evil" (Iraq, North Korea, and Iran) rate at the bottom of the list.
As noted, France, Germany, and North Korea suffered the biggest drops in the American public's esteem this year. There were no major increases in favorable ratings this year compared to last year for any of the countries tested, although Israel, Egypt, Iran, and Libya are all rated somewhat more favorably this year (the last two, of course, remain near the bottom of the list despite their relative increase in favorable ratings over last year).
We have included in the table below the favorable and unfavorable ratings for each country, the net favorable rating, and the change in the net rating for each country compared to last year. (Several countries were not rated last year, as noted.) Here is the list:
Americans' Ratings of 26 Foreign Countries Feb. 3-6, 2003:
< ... snip ... >
France down this year 37%
Germany down this year 22%
Palestinian Authority is highly unfavorable - 60% !
North Korea is even lower at - 66% down another 26% from last year
< ... snap ... >
Fifteen of the 26 countries receive net positive ratings; i.e., the percentage of Americans giving them a favorable rating exceeds the percentage giving them an unfavorable rating.
Americans are clearly most positive about two English-speaking countries: Great Britain and Canada, both of which receive net favorable ratings in the 80% range. (Australia, not included on the list this year, had a similarly high score in a 2001 survey.)
Americans also give net favorable ratings of 50% or higher to five other countries: Italy, Spain, Japan, Mexico, and Germany.
Germany is rated lower this year than it was last year. The drop is not as dramatic for Germany as it is for France. Americans' favorable attitudes toward Germany had averaged in the 70% range since 1991, although they dropped to 63% in June 1993 and reached a high point of 83% last February. This year, 71% of Americans have a favorable attitude toward Germany, while 21% have an unfavorable attitude.
Turkey, Russia, Israel, Egypt, South Korea, and France comprise the next group of countries in the list. All of these receive significantly more favorable than unfavorable ratings from Americans, although not as favorable as the countries discussed above.
As noted, there have been changes in the positioning of several of these countries in the minds of Americans since last year. Israel and Egypt get slightly more favorable ratings now than they did in 2002. Israel's net favorable rating has gone from 23% last year to 35% this year, while Egypt's net rating has increased from 20% to 31%.
The image of France has undergone the most significant change of any of the countries tested. Americans have been asked about France using this format in six previous Gallup Polls, stretching back to 1991. Between 70% and 79% of Americans have reported favorable attitudes toward France in each of these prior surveys. Between 12% and 20% have reported unfavorable attitudes.
This year, only 59% of Americans say they have a favorable attitude toward France, while 33% report a negative view. That's a substantial decline from last year, when 79% had a favorable view and 16% had an unfavorable view. The net favorable rating for France has thus dropped from 63% last year to its current reading of 26%.
Kuwait, Vietnam, and China all have net ratings of about 0%; i.e., just about as many Americans rate them unfavorably as rate them favorably.
A series of six countries have net ratings that are in the minus 30% to minus 50% range. These include Saudi Arabia, Colombia, Cuba, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Libya.
Libya's and Saudi Arabia's images are slightly more positive this year than they were last year.
Three countries have much more substantially unfavorable images among Americans: the Palestinian Authority, Iran, and North Korea.
While attitudes toward North Korea have been strongly unfavorable in the three previous surveys that included North Korea, they have become much more so this year, with a reading of 12% favorable and 80% unfavorable. The net favorable rating of North Korea has moved from –42% last year to –68% this year.
Finally, and not surprisingly, Iraq is the lowest rated of any of the 26 countries tested, with unfavorable ratings from 90% of Americans and favorable ratings from only 5%. This is not new. Iraq's image has been similarly negative in each of the 10 prior Gallup Polls in which it has been tested, going back to 1991.
Survey Methods
These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,001 adults, 18 years and older, conducted Feb. 3-6, 2003. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is ±3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
(Excerpt) Read more at gallup.com ...
I do think it's important to note, as you do, that Germany has a very solid post-war history of great cooperation with the U.S.
It's unfortunate that Schroeder's desperation to get re-elected has led him down his current path. He was basically willing to sell his country out in order to protect his political future, and the reverberations of that decision have affected people like you, and that's sad.
Here's hoping that there's a new government in Germany soon, even a more rational SDP government would be a vast improvement, and once that happens I expect relations will improve greatly.
You're either with us, or against us.
Get with the program!
A better bellweather on attitudes toward France and Germany: the Saturday Nite Live skit last weekend about the UN -- with the pukey German ambassador leading the debate on when to break for lunch and the French ambassador insisting that he was bringing his mistress, his son and his son's two mistresses. A hoot.
Correction, Belgian's, not Belgium's.
In the future, I will just refer to them as the "Euroweenies". Dickheads for short!
Conservatives in Germany have a lot of work ahead of them. American's opinion of them [Germans] is not as critical as the nurturing of a realistic view of the world and the evil that must be confronted. The inability to grasp that strength must be projected in some instances, and that appeasement is fatal, will prove to be damaging to Germany in the long run. Germany, by hestitating in the face of evil, gives evidence that it does not trust its evaluation of good and evil in the world. America is confident that it knows evil when it sees it and should act to defeat it. This is the crux of the matter; Europe has lost its moral acuity.
This is also the result of a post-Christian world view in Europe. It has been said that when you don't believe in God, you 'll believe in anything.
I was also impressed with your bier halls but that was when I led a more raucous life, hehehe.
The axis of weasels
Against German peaceniks? Big deal. We're fully capable of "protecting" those bases ourselves.
I just hate Herr Schroeder ...
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