Who Is Anti-American in the European Union?

Abstract

The term anti-Americanism has become common in public and academic debate in the last decade. Yet we have only limited knowledge of those who hold such views. From 2003, 2005, and 2006 Eurobarometer data, almost 20% of European Union (EU) respondents disapproved of U.S. policy in all five dimensions the surveys examined. Following the literature, this consistent opposition is defined as anti-American. Anti-Americans exhibit systematic differences in age, education, geographical location, policy preferences, and nationality. In addition, although anti-Americanism is associated with a preference for greater European independence, perhaps surprisingly, it is also linked to a desire for a less federal and hence less powerful Europe. In both sets of attitudes, to the United States and to the EU, there are substantial variations within countries between different types of locality, which reinforces the view that it is too simplistic to describe a country as being anti-American or being pro-European integration.

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