As we enter the July 4th holiday weekend, I?ve been looking at some polling data and thought this piece of information relevant to my previous post on the political significance of American Exceptionalism.
Asked by the National Opinion Research Center whether their country was ?better than most other countries,? 80 percent of Americans said they agreed or strongly agreed. Compare that to other developed countries: 53 percent in Great Britain, 34 percent in Spain, 35 percent in Russia, 38 percent in Italy, 44 percent in Sweden, 45 percent in the Netherlands, and 36 percent in Germany. On the other hand, the Irish (70 percent), the Norwegians (65 percent), the New Zealanders (77 percent), the Canadians (78 percent), and the Japanese (83 percent) had sentiments similar to the Americans?.
On a separate measure, respondents were asked whether they were ?proud? of their country. Here?s the ranking of ?yes? responses:
77 percent ? Ireland
76 percent ? USA
61 percent ? Canada
54 percent ? Great Britain
45 percent ? Spain, Norway
41 percent ? Italy, Sweden
35 percent ? France
29 percent ? Belgium, Japan
26 percent ? Russia
21 percent ? Netherlands
20 percent ? Germany
But what about the supposedly ?haughty? French?
