When he visited the United States in the 1830s, Alexis de Tocqueville called the new nation ‘exceptional,’ by which he meant qualitatively different. Some of the differences he identified appear in polls today. Americans are more religious, more satisfied with their personal lives and their jobs, more wary of government, and more comfortable with the use of military force than are Europeans.

RELIGIOUS BELIEF

Source: Harris Interactive/Financial Times, November-December 2006; Pew Global Attitudes, 2002.

SATISFACTION 

Source: (U.S.) Harris Interactive, 2005; (European countries), Eurobarometer 62, 2004.

Source: International Social Survey Project, 2005; Harris Interactive/Financial Times, 2007.

GOVERNMENT'S ROLE

Source: Pew Global Attitudes, 2002.

FOREIGN POLICY

Source: Transatlantic Trends, 2007.

Image credit: illustrations by Otto Steininger.