European-US differences on democracy promotion revealed  in GMF Survey
18 Sept. 2006

Transatlantic Trends 2006, an annual survey produced by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, presented its key findings this year regarding European and American public opinion on a variety of issues facing the transatlantic community, including the concept of democracy promotion. Pollsters questioned a 1,000 people in the U.S. and 12 European countries: Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

The survey found that U.S. support for its role in global democracy promotion is waning (45% this year as opposed to 52% last year), while European public opinion remained the same (71%). The survey also indicated that while both the Americands. and Europeans supported using “less intrusive options” (such as election monitoring) to promote democracy, they differ in their views regarding the use military force to promote democracy. Public opinion in the U.S. showed that 34% support it while European support fell eight percentage-points in the last year to 24%. Additionally, NATO has lost support in Europe:in 2005, 69% of Europeans thought that NATO was “essential for their country’s securities,” now only 55% do. Moreover, the survey found that the greatest declines were in countries that had once been strong supporters of NATO: Germany, Italy, Poland, and Turkey.  

Significant differences also arose regarding the support of democracy promotion in nations that are likely to have oppose democracy. Only 33% of Europeans supported democracy promotion of this kind while 53% of Americans (and 54% of Turks) did so. When asked whether the values of Islam are compatible with democracy, 56% of both Americans and Europeans said that they were not. . However, 60% of both Americans and Europeans feel that the problem is not with Islam in general, but instead with particular Islamic groups.

Michael Allen of the National Endowment for Democracy’s, “Democracy Digest,” suggested that the difference between U.S. and Europe on the value of democracy promotion among Islamic Fundamentalists was based on Europe’s experience with the social and political problems associated with refugees, the growth of radicalism in Europe (stemming from migration) following the independence of Algeria, developments in Turkey, etc

In Europe, the majority of people support expanding the EU and believe that its enlargement will help “promote peace and democracy along its borders.” Additionally, there is strong support for strengthening an EU Foreign Minister, but public opinion is divided with respect to the growth of EU’s military power. However, the study revealed that Turkish support of the EU, NATO, and the U. S. has “cooled.” GMF analysts fear that instead of continuing to align itself with the U.S. and Europe and their institutions, Turkey is now leaning more toward it Middle Eastern neighbors, in particular, Iran.

Finally, the image of the U.S. and its leadership on the part of Europeans continues to be very low (37%), though there was a slight increase from last year. However, the European approval rating for President Bush has dropped to 18% from 24% last year.

The full report is available at CCD and also at: www.transatlantictrends.org