Lonely America: Little Global Support for U.S. Government Policies

FEBRUARY 5, 2003, WASHINGTON, D.C. - Only about one-in-three citizens or fewer in 12 out of 14 countries surveyed want to see their own country's leaders become more supportive of U.S. government policies, according to a survey by Ipsos, the international research firm.

In 9 of 14 countries surveyed by Ipsos, nearly half or more of citizens say they want to see their nation's leaders become less supportive of American government policies. In all, Ipsos interviewed 8,000 adults last November and December.

In every European country polled, at least half of the public rejected more support by their political leaders for positions taken by the U.S. government.

"In virtually every corner of the world, there is significant public support for scaling back domestic endorsement of American government policies," said Thomas Riehle, president of the company's public affairs and public opinion polling division in the U.S. "Clearly, the United States has some major fence-mending to do."

Even among Canadians, public opinion is evenly divided between those who think their leaders should be less supportive (48%), and those who favor either more support (37%) or maintaining current position on U.S. policy (10%).

And elsewhere:

• In Europe, outright opposition is highest in France, where more than two out of three French citizens say their government should be less supportive of American policies.
• It would be difficult to express more support for the Bush Administration's stance on Iraq than Tony Blair's government has done, though a few (20% of Britons) think more should be expressed, and a very few (13%) would like to see it maintained.
• A slim majority of Germans think their leaders are still giving too much support to the Americans, even after the distinctly anti-American rhetorical tilt of German Chancellor Schroeder in the last election. Fifty-three per cent think their leaders should be less supportive of American government policies.
• In the Americas, large majorities in urban Brazil (70%), Argentina (63%) and Mexico (61%) say their leaders should show less support for U.S. government policies.
• Japanese opinion is mildly supportive, with a slim majority favoring either the current level of U.S. government support (29%) or more support (25%).

To view the table of results, please open the attached PDF file.

"Endorsement of American government policies has held up in just a handful of countries -- and slipped into negative territory in some places that are usually considered allies," said Riehle, of Ipsos.

"In recent elections in South Korea and earlier in Germany, the winning national candidate took an overtly anti-American position," Riehle said. "For political leaders in other countries, such as U.K., the message of those elections--and the message in the findings for this latest Ipsos Global Express poll--is that there is little political cover for politicians who express strong support for American government policies."

Methodology

These international survey research data were collected via Ipsos's Global Express, a quarterly international omnibus survey. Fieldwork was conducted between November 11 and December 14, 2002. Data are based on individual surveys taken with a random sampling of adults (18+) across 15 national markets. The target sample size in each country was 500, except for the United States where 1,000 interviews were conducted. Within each country, the survey results can be said to be within 177 4.5 percentage points of what they would have been had the entire adult population been surveyed; 177 3.1 percentage points for the 1,000 sample in the United States. In 10 of these 15 surveyed countries, the samples provide national coverage. In most of these national sample countries the data were collected via randomized telephone interviewing, the exceptions being Argentina, Philippines, Poland, and Turkey, where in-person door-to-door interviewing was used. Door-to-door interviewing was also used in the non-national samples of Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, South Africa, and Thailand, where the sample coverage was limited to the largest cities.

-30- For more information on this release, please contact: Thomas Riehle President, Ipsos Public Affairs 202.463.7300