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More on the
sociopolitical homefront…KwC Who Are the Pro-Americans? Commentary by Anne
Applebaum, Washington Post, Wednesday, June 29, 2005; A21 So familiar are the
numbers, and so often have we heard them analyzed, that the release of a new
poll on international anti-Americanism last week caused barely a ripple. Once
again the Pew Global Attitudes Project showed that most Frenchmen have a highly
unfavorable view of the United States; that the Spanish prefer China to
America; and that Canadian opinion of the United States has sunk dramatically. And
once again the polls told only half of the story. After all, even the most
damning polls always show that some percentage of even the most anti-American
countries remains pro-American. According to the new poll, some 43 percent of
the French, 41 percent of Germans, 42 percent of Chinese and 42 percent of
Lebanese say they like us. Maybe it's time to ask: Who are they? In fact, when pro- and
anti-American sentiments are broken down by age, income and education -- I did
so recently using polling data from the Program on International Policy
Attitudes, supplied by Foreign Policy magazine -- patterns do emerge. It turns
out, for example, that in Poland, which is generally pro-American, people
between the ages of 30 and 44 are even more likely to support America than
their compatriots. This is the group whose lives would have been most directly
affected by the experience of the Solidarity movement and martial law -- events
that occurred when they were in their teens and twenties -- and who have the
clearest memories of American support for the Polish underground. It also turns out that
in some more anti-American countries, such as Canada, Britain, Italy and
Australia, people older than 60 have far more positive feelings about
the United States than their children and grandchildren. This was the generation, of course, that
had positive experiences of U.S. cooperation or occupation during World War II.
And surely there's a lesson here: Although anti-Americanism is often described
as if it were mere fashion, or some sort of contagious virus, America's
behavior overseas, whether support for anticommunist movements or allied
cooperation, does matter. To put it differently, people feel more positive
about the United States when their personal experience is positive. But the polls also
make clear that direct political experience is not the only factor that shapes
foreigners' perceptions of the United States. Advertising executives understand
very well the phenomenon of ordinary women who read magazines filled with
photographs of clothes they could never afford: They call such women
"aspirational." Looking around the world, it is clear there are
classes of people who might also be called aspirational. They are upwardly
mobile, or would like to be. They tend to be pro-American, too. In Britain, for
example, 57.6 percent of those whose income are low believe that the United
States has a mainly positive influence in the world, while only 37.1 percent of
those whose income are high believe the same. Breaking down the answers by education,
a similar pattern emerges. In South Korea, 69.2 percent of those with low
education think the United States is a positive influence, while only 45.8
percent of those with a high education agree. That trend repeats
itself not only across Europe but in many other developed countries. Those on
their way up are pro-American. Those who have arrived, and perhaps feel
threatened by those eager to do the same, are much less so. In developing
countries, by contrast, the pattern is sometimes reversed. It turns out, for
example, that Indians are much more likely to be pro-American if they are not
only younger but also wealthier and better educated, and no wonder. Because India has only
recently been open to foreign investment, younger Indians have had the experience
of working with Americans, whereas their parents have not. The poor in India
are still untouched by globalization, but the middle and upper-middle classes
-- those who see for themselves a role in the English-speaking,
American-dominated international economy -- are aspirational, and therefore
pro-American.
Some 69 percent of Indians with high incomes think the United States is a
mainly positive influence in the world, and only 29 percent of those with low
incomes agree. This same phenomenon may also account for the persistence of a
surprising degree of popular pro-Americanism in such places as Vietnam,
Indonesia, Brazil and the Philippines. They're getting wealthier -- like
Americans -- but aren't yet so rich as to feel directly competitive. True, these
pro-Americans may not be a majority, either in the world or in their own
countries. But neither are they insignificant. Pro-Americans will vote for
pro-American politicians, who sometimes win, even in Europe. They will also
purchase American products, make deals with American companies, vacation in the
United States if we give them visas to do so. They are worth cultivating, with
presidential speeches or diplomatic visits, because their numbers may even grow
if their economies expand,
if their markets grow freer, if they begin to see the global economy as a
promise and not a threat. Before Americans brush off the opinion of
the "foreigners" as unworthy of attention, they should remember that
whole chunks of the world have a natural affinity for them and, if they are
diligent, always will.
Happy Fourth of July. A
longer version of this article appears in the July/August issue of Foreign
Policy magazine. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/28/AR2005062801246.html?nav=hcmodule |
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