A record low 54% of Americans say they have a “positive image” of capitalism, a drop of 7 points from when the question was first posed 15 years ago, according to a new Gallup Poll published Monday.
The drop in support is being driven by Democrats, 42% of whom say they view capitalism positively. Instead, 66% of Democrats say they support socialism.
Meanwhile, 51% of independents and 74% of Republicans say they are positive toward capitalism. Support from independents has dropped 8 points since 2021 while backing from Republicans is up 2 points in four years, according to Gallup.
“Americans’ opinions of capitalism were generally steady prior to this year, but the 54% who now view it positively is the lowest Gallup has measured to date. While Americans retain generally positive views of the U.S. economic system, they are less positive toward it than toward free enterprise and small business, two specific aspects of capitalism,” Gallup said in its analysis.
Overall, just 39% of Americans say they support socialism. Beyond Democrats, only 38% of independents and 14% of Republicans say they view socialism positively.
“Americans overall continue to be skeptical of socialism, but Democrats are the exception. Since 2016, more Democrats have held positive views of socialism than of capitalism, with the gap expanding to 24 points today,” Gallup wrote.
“Democrats’ more positive views of socialism occur at a time when many high-profile Democratic officials — most notably, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., as well as New York City mayoral Democrat candidate Zohran Mamdani — have identified themselves as Democratic socialists and advocated policies calling for a significantly expanded government role in economic matters,” it added.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., told Newsmax in July that the Democratic Party is “embracing socialism and communist ideology for self-preservation” to avoid losing to progressive challengers like Mamdani.
“This is the problem with the Democrat Party: they are moving more and more to the left, embracing socialism and communist ideology for self-preservation, because they’re all afraid that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is going to run a primary against them.”
Gallup surveyed 1,094 adults from Aug. 1-20. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points with a 95% confidence level.
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