[lbo-talk] Pride

[Kevin Robert Dean]

Contact: William Harms
w-harms at uchicago.edu
773-702-8356
University of Chicago
Americans and Venezuelans lead the world in national pride
Survey measures patriotism of people in 33 nations
When it comes to being proud about their country, people in the United 
States and Venezuela lead the world, according to a new report produced 
by the National Opinion Research Center.

Among 33 nations surveyed, the United States was the nation with the 
leading score in pride over specific accomplishments and Venezuela was 
the leading nation in the general national pride portion of the survey.

Although the countries have been at odds recently over a variety of 
issues, they do share a common trait with most of the top 10 nations in 
the national pride survey – they are both relatively new nations that 
once were colonies.

"These countries formed their national identities through conflicts that 
bound their people together and created a national story that resonates 
with citizens," said Tom Smith, Director of the General Social Survey at 
NORC. Smith co-authored the paper, titled "National Pride in Comparative 
Perspective: 1995/96 and 2003/2004," with University researcher and 
graduate student in Sociology Seokho Kim.

The paper was published Wednesday, March1 in the International Journal 
of Public Opinion Research, and it is based on surveys conducted by the 
International Social Survey Program, a consortium of survey researchers 
throughout the world.

Researchers collaborated on the survey to see what changes have 
developed in national pride over the past decade and also to gauge the 
impact of globalization on people's feelings about patriotism.

"The world is primarily organized in nation states: sovereign, 
geo-political entities organized around one predominant nationality or 
ethnic group," Smith said. "National identity is the cohesive force that 
both holds nation states together and shapes their relationships with 
the family of nations."

The researchers found that nations with growing national pride were 
those that had experienced terrorist attacks on their citizens, such as 
the United States and Australia. These experiences usually strengthened 
national solidarity, Smith said. The study also found that within the 
surveyed countries, national pride was generally lower among minority 
groups, the better-educated and younger adults.

The researchers asked a series of questions related to general national 
pride that asked people to what extent they agreed with such statements 
as, "I would rather be a citizen of my country than any other country in 
the world," and "Generally speaking, my country is a better country than 
most countries." A second set of questions about national pride in 
specific areas, such as the nation's achievements in science and 
technology, the arts, sports and political influence in the world.

On the general pride measure, people in Venezuela had a score of 18.4 
(out of a possible 25), while people in the United States had a score of 
17.7. Other top leaders in that category were Australia (17.5), Austria 
(17.4), South Africa (17), Canada (17), Chile (17.1), New Zealand (16.6) 
and Israel (16.2).

In the domain-specific category, the United States led with a score of 4 
followed by Venezuela (3.6), Australia (2.9), Austria (2.4), South 
Africa (2.7), Canada (2.4), Chile (2.6), the Philippines (2.3) and 
Israel (2.3).

The countries at the bottom of the list are generally established 
nations in Europe. "It could be that those nations are experiencing a 
response to globalism, particularly among young people. Many identify as 
much as being Europeans as they do as being citizens of their own 
country. In some European nations, the concept of strong patriotism also 
has negative connotations," Smith said.

The bottom 10 nations in the survey, beginning with the last, were the 
eastern portion of Germany, Latvia, Sweden, Slovakia, Poland, the 
western portion of Germany, Taiwan, France, Switzerland, and the Czech 
Republic.

The first survey on national pride was based on surveys taken in 1995 
and 1996 in 23 countries. The results were based on national probability 
samples of adults living in each of the countries.

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In the United States, the National Science Foundation and the Smith 
Richardson Foundation supported the current survey.