In 1939, pollsters in the U.S. and Britain asked respondents a tough question: if they had to choose between communism and fascism, which would they pick? Britons were more likely to pick communism, while Americans were evenly split.
This fall, YouGov re-asked that question. Compared to 1939, Americans in 2024 are about as likely to say they'd pick communism (28% now and 26% then), but less likely to choose fascism (17% now, 26% then). The British question is harder to compare since the 1939 version didn't give respondents an option to say "don't know" or "no opinion" while the 2024 version did. Compared to Americans, though, Britons today are more likely to prefer communism and less likely to prefer fascism.
Both the modern British and American polls found that most people who choose either fascism or communism say they made their choice because "both systems are bad, but one is noticeably worse than the other," rather than that their choice is a good system.
American registered voters who support Kamala Harris in the 2024 election are more likely to choose communism (43%) than fascism (11%), while Americans who support Donald Trump are more likely to choose fascism (28%) than communism (16%).
Younger and more liberal Americans are more likely to say communism is the better — or less-bad — system, while older and more conservative Americans are more likely to pick fascism over communism. Among Americans who identify as "very liberal," 61% would pick communism and 14% would pick fascism, while among those who identify as "very conservative," 10% pick communism and 37% pick fascism.
YouGov also asked Americans about a range of other systems of government. Most Americans feel very or somewhat favorable about democracy and democratic republics, but Americans are more likely to feel very or somewhat unfavorable about the nine other governmental systems that were asked about. 80% or more of Americans have unfavorable feelings about dictatorship (87%), communism (81%), absolute monarchy (81%), and fascism (80%). Majorities have negative feelings about socialism (59%), theocracy (56%), and constitutional monarchy (56%).
Theocracy, constitutional monarchy, and federalism all provoke no opinion in one-quarter or more of Americans.
Democrats are more likely than Republicans to have strong feelings in favor of democracy — 72% of Democrats feel very favorable about democracy and 21% somewhat favorable, while among Republicans 49% feel very favorable and 27% somewhat favorable. But views on a democratic republic show no partisan split: 43% of Democrats and 44% of Republicans feel very favorably about that system of government.
Which countries have which governments?
YouGov asked Americans which of several systems of government best describes the governments of 12 countries. For most of these countries, one-quarter or more of Americans say they aren't sure of the system of government, and for only two countries do majorities of Americans have a single opinion: 72% say the U.S. is a democratic republic, and 55% say North Korea is a dictatorship. (Two other countries come close to a majority: 49% describe the U.K. as a constitutional monarchy, and the same share say China is communist.)
Among just those Americans who have an opinion, 79% say the U.S. is a democratic republic. Majorities of those Americans with an opinion identify Israel as a democratic republic, the U.K. as a constitutional monarchy, North Korea as a dictatorship, and China as communist. Even among Americans with an opinion about the form of government in India, Denmark, Japan, Hungary, Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, no form of government got a majority vote for any of them.
Americans have divided opinions about several countries' system of government. 37% of Americans describe Iran as a dictatorship, while 34% describe it as a theocracy. Denmark and Japan are both constitutional monarchies, but Americans are more likely to say each is a democratic republic: for Denmark, 42% say democratic republic and 33% say it's a constitutional monarchy; for Japan, 41% say democratic republic and 30% say constitutional monarchy.
More than 30 years after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, 34% of Americans say communism is the system of government that best describes Russia; 44% say it's a dictatorship.
What philosophies of government do Americans endorse?
To go beyond labels to what Americans actually think about how government should be structured, YouGov asked Americans where they fell between 10 different pairs of opposing statements. For each pair of statements, respondents gave themselves a number between 1 and 5, where 1 represented one statement and 5 the other.
On four of those 10 pairs of statements, liberals and conservative largely agree. Most Americans associate themselves with the belief that "the head of state should change regularly" rather than that "the head of state should be able to stay in office for long periods." A majority of Americans put themselves in the middle between a powerful executive branch and a powerful legislative branch. And while there is less consensus about whether the head of state should be a political leader or above politics, and whether the needs of individual citizens or the country should come first, neither spectrum had significant differences between liberals and conservatives.
Six other pairs of opposing statements highlight ideological divides in the U.S. Most liberals lean toward "everyone should be allowed to vote" while most conservatives lean toward "only citizens who meet specific criteria should be allowed to vote." Most liberals endorse a government based on secular principles while a majority of conservatives endorse a government based on Judeo-Christian principles. And most liberals lean toward the view that the government should intervene to promote social equality while most conservatives say it shouldn't.
Conservatives are more likely than liberals to say governments should have a single top leader rather than many prominent leaders, to say that regional governments should be more powerful than the national government, and to say that implementing new policies should be a slow and thoughtful process.
See the results of this poll
Methodology: Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel using sample matching. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given prior to November 1, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democratic, 31% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4%.
Image: Getty (falcon0125)
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