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Only 8% of Americans would describe themselves as socialists, according to this week's Economist / YouGov Poll. That's smaller than the shares who describe themselves with several other ideological adjectives offered in a poll question, including progressive (17%), liberal (23%), and conservative (34%). (Respondents were allowed to choose as many labels as they liked to describe themselves.)
Even though few Americans say they're socialists, many policy proposals championed by democratic socialists draw significant support from Americans.
About half (52%) of Americans support eliminating private health insurance companies and replacing them with a national health plan in which all Americans get their health insurance from the federal government. Only 30%) oppose such a plan. Such a proposal would draw support from most Democrats (73% vs. 13% who oppose) and a majority of Independents (54% vs. 22%). Republicans are much less likely to support such a proposal, but only a bit more than half would oppose it (30% support vs. 54% who oppose). And while the vast majorities of self-described socialists (90%) and liberals (81%) support such a plan, it also draws support from a majority of moderates (55% vs. 29% who oppose) and nearly one-third of conservatives (30% vs. 55%). (The poll separately asks each week about Americans' ideology and respondents can pick one of liberal, moderate, and conservative; it's a slightly different way of asking that gets slightly different numbers.)
While eliminating insurance companies may sound like a radical change to healthcare, the share of Americans who want to replace private insurance with a government health plan (52%) is larger than the share who want to expand the existing Obamacare (the health-coverage system established by the Affordable Care Act) (38%). The share who favor repealing Obamacare (28%) is about as large as the share who oppose replacing private insurance with a government plan (30%).
Americans who support a national healthcare plan do not universally see expanding Obamacare as a step in the right direction. Only a little more than half (56%) of the Americans who support creating a national health plan also support expanding Obamacare. On the other hand, most Americans who support expanding Obamacare would also support a national health plan that replaces private insurance (77%).
Other proposals associated with democratic socialism also have widespread support from Americans. Majorities of Americans favor having the government cover the cost of college tuition for all students (55% vs. 34% who oppose) and think the government should build public housing (57% vs. 24% who think it should not). More broadly, slightly more Americans say they would rather have a bigger government providing more services than a smaller government providing fewer services (39% vs. 35%).
But despite the support of many Americans for certain socialist policy proposals, Americans have less positive views of socialism as a label. More Americans have an unfavorable opinion of socialism than a favorable one (39% vs. 32%) and more than twice as many Americans say that capitalism is the better economic system than socialism than say socialism is better (44% vs. 19%). Only 29% of Americans say they would ever vote for a candidate who identified as a democratic socialist while nearly half (45%) never would.
Image: Getty (Joe Raedle / Staff)
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