Americans' Views of Socialism, Capitalism Are Little Changed

PRINCETON, N.J. -- Even though Bernie Sanders, a self-described "Democratic socialist," has generated strong support for his presidential campaign, Americans' image of socialism is no better now than it was six years ago. Thirty-five percent of Americans have a positive view of the term socialism, similar to what was found in 2012 and 2010. The 60% who have a positive view of capitalism is also unchanged from six years ago.

	May 2-4, 2016%	Nov. 18-19, 2012%	Jan. 26-27, 2010%
Small business	96	95	95
Entrepreneurs	87	86	84
Free enterprise	85	89	86
Capitalism	60	61	61
Big business	53	58	49
The federal government	44	51	46
Socialism	35	39	36
Gallup Daily tracking

Americans retain very positive images of small business, entrepreneurs and free enterprise. A little more than half have a positive view of big business, and less than half have a positive view of the federal government.

These seven terms were measured May 2-4 using Gallup Daily tracking, updating previous measurements taken in November 2012, just after that year's presidential election, and in January 2010.

The rank order of positive reactions has been the same at each of the three time periods, with only minor fluctuations in the percentage of Americans holding a positive image of each concept. Positive views of big business, for example, are down a little from 2012 but remain higher than in 2010. Views of the federal government are also slightly less positive than three-and-a-half years ago but are now about where they were in 2010.

Democratic presidential candidate Sanders focused his campaign on criticism of big business and promoted the value of a bigger role for the federal government in economic and social life, including his proposals for a "Medicare for all" federally funded healthcare system. At the same time, the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, is himself a businessman who has, along with many of the other Republican challengers, focused on criticizing the government while saying that he would run it more like a business. However, none of this has apparently made a major difference in the ways in which Americans think about these economic terms.

As would be expected, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are somewhat more positive about big business, free enterprise and capitalism than are Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents.

Democrats, on the other hand, are much more positive than Republicans about the federal government and socialism. Notably, Democrats have a more positive image of socialism than they do of big business, and their images of socialism and capitalism are essentially the same. These broad patterns are similar to what was found in 2012.

	Republicans/Republican leaners%	Democrats/Democratic leaners%
Small business	97	96
Entrepreneurs	91	86
Free enterprise	92	83
Capitalism	68	56
Big business	57	48
The federal government	30	59
Socialism	13	58
May 2-4, 2016
Gallup Daily tracking

Younger Adults More Positive Than Older Adults About Socialism

Young Americans, aged 18-29, have more positive views of both the federal government and socialism than older Americans do. Young adults' ratings of the federal government, capitalism, big business and socialism are similar -- between 55% and 58% positive for each.

Older Americans' views of capitalism are more positive than those of Americans under 50 years of age, and older Americans' views of socialism are more negative than those who are younger. Overall, Americans across most age groups see capitalism more positively than socialism. The exception is among those aged 18-29, who are equally positive about both.

	18-29 years%	30-49 years%	50-64 years%	65+ years%
Small business	98	94	96	93
Entrepreneurs	90	87	87	83
Free enterprise	78	84	89	91
Capitalism	57	54	69	63
Big business	57	49	52	53
The federal government	58	43	38	40
Socialism	55	37	27	24
May 2-4, 2016
Gallup Daily tracking

Implications

These results show the presidential campaign has not changed Americans' images of a number of commonly used political and economic terms. Americans react almost universally positively to the term small business and also have very positive reactions to free enterprise and entrepreneurs. Overall reactions to capitalism are also positive and significantly more so than views of socialism, which is the least-liked term of any tested.

Americans are mixed in their reactions to big business and the federal government, with slightly more positive views of the former than the latter. Notably, Americans are less positive about capitalism and big business than they are about free enterprise and small business, highlighting the different ways in which these terms resonate with the public.

The results show that several of these terms are politically charged. Republicans and Democrats diverge in their reactions to capitalism, big business, socialism and the federal government, with the biggest differences seen on the latter two terms. Sanders' strong challenge to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination is a testament to the fact that his self-labeling as a "Democratic socialist" is not a strong negative among Democrats. His and Clinton's more positive views of the federal government and its role in society as espoused on the campaign trail also seem to fit with those of rank-and-file Democrats, the majority of whom are positive about the government.

It is notable that young Americans constitute the only age group that does not view the term socialism more negatively than capitalism. Older Americans' much more negative reactions to socialism could be based on different historical or conceptual references than is the case for young people. Americans being much more positive about the term free enterprise than capitalism also suggests that labels used to describe an economic system carry different connotations.

Historical data are available in Gallup Analytics.

Survey Methods

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted May 2-4, 2016, on the Gallup U.S. Daily survey, with a random sample of 1,544 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.

Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60% cellphone respondents and 40% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.

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