Dem
47
GOP
53
Americans don't seem to realize that big military parades is the stuff of dictatorships, like North Korea and Russia. People in other countries are more aware of what is going on in America than most Americans. Two new international polls bear this out. They also show that the attitude people in other countries have about the U.S. depends on who is president, with Democrats almost always more popular than Republicans. Here are graphs for 28 countries over time:
The top four countries, Nigeria, Israel, India, and Kenya, have always had faith in the U.S. but in European countries, like the Netherlands, France, Spain, Germany, and Sweden, confidence is very high during Democratic administrations and very low during Republican ones, with net scores of -55, -56, -61, -63, and -70 now during Trump v2.0.
Another question that was asked is whether U.S. democracy is working well. In Nigeria, Hungary, Israel, Kenya, and Poland, the overwhelming view is yes, but note that four of them are run by autocrats and the fifth one (Israel) has received massive support from the U.S. The scores here range from +67 (Nigeria) to Poland (+29). At the other end are countries that think U.S. democracy is working very poorly. The bottom six are France, the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Australia, and Sweden, where the scores range from -24 (France) to -56 (Sweden). Roughly speaking, the more autocratic a country is, the more the people admire the U.S. now and the more democratic it is, the less they do.
Another dimension is how views differ on the left and the right in various countries. The gap is fairly consistent across countries. People on the right in most countries are about 30 points more positive about the U.S. than people on the left in the same country. But the more extreme the people were, the bigger the gap. For example, in Germany, people who support the AfD are wildly supportive of Trump. They see the U.S. as a test case for the idea of multiracial democracies and are overjoyed it is failing.
On one question, the U.S. comes out fairly well, namely, whether the country is better off with a strong leader who is willing to break the rules (technically: committing crimes). In South Korea, which is in turmoil, 75% think so. In the U.S. only 38% think that. In Germany, where some people have had negative personal experience with leaders who broke the rules, only 24% want that, roughly equal to the AfD's vote share.
On immigration, however, Americans are split. 53% of Republicans are anti-immigrant, putting them between Peru and Hungary, but only 18% of Democrats are anti-immigrant, lower than the lowest country in the list (Sweden at 21%).
In short, the U.S. is not very popular in the world anymore. If something happens somewhere (say a terrorist attack) where the U.S. needs help from other countries to catch the perpetrator, that may not be forthcoming. (V)