Americans see capitalism as giving people more opportunity and more freedom than socialism, while they see socialism as more likely to meet people’s basic needs, though these perceptions differ significantly by party. Many Democrats say socialism meets people’s basic needs; Republicans say it restricts individual freedoms.
How we did this Pew Research Center conducted this study to better understand how the public views socialism and capitalism. For this analysis, we surveyed 7,647 adults from Aug. 1-14, 2022. The survey was primarily conducted on the Center's nationally representative American Trends Panel, with an oversample of Hispanic adults from Ipsos' KnowledgePanel.
The survey found that Republicans, in particular, viewed socialism and capitalism in zero-sum terms. A large majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (68%) had both a positive impression of capitalism and a negative view of socialism. However, Democrats and Democratic leaners were more likely to view both terms positively; a plurality (38%) had a positive impression of both ...
Americans see capitalism as giving people more opportunity and more freedom than socialism, while they see socialism as more likely to meet people’s basic needs, though these perceptions differ significantly by party. Many Democrats say socialism meets people’s basic needs; Republicans say it restricts individual freedoms.
Confidence in Democracy and Capitalism Wanes in Former Soviet Union Overview Two decades after the Soviet Union’s collapse, Russians, Ukrainians, and Lithuanians are unhappy with the direction of their countries and disillusioned with the state of their politics.
Republicans express intensely negative views of “socialism” and very positive views of “capitalism.” Majorities of Democrats view both terms positively.
A similar share (20%) says that capitalism has an exploitative and corrupt nature, often hurting either people or the environment. A smaller share of Americans who have negative views of capitalism (8%) mention that corporations and wealthy people undermine the democratic process by having too much power in political matters.
Black Americans view capitalism more negatively than positively but express hope in Black businesses In an August 2022 survey, 54% of Black adults said they had a very or somewhat negative impression of capitalism, up from 40% in May 2019.
