Similarities Between American And Western European Individualism

People in America and people in Western European countries have many similar beliefs and views on different things such as values, military, morals, and the basic principles of democracy. Although similarities exist between the two, they are still extremely different and have such opposite views on other things. Some things that America and Western Europe have major differences are religion, social customs, politics, and the government system. European countries tend to be more lenient towards things like alcohol, prostitution, and abortion compared to America. According to Figure 1.3, Pew Global Survey: “Individualism as a Value in the United States Compared to Other Democracies” in The Enduring Democracy by Kenneth Dautrich, individualism has completely different impacts on Americans versus Western Europeans. I think that people respond differently to how important individualism is in America as opposed to Western Europe because of the way that each population has grown and where each has grown from.

In Western European countries, more than half of the citizens surveyed thought that the state should make sure that there is nobody in need. I think that people in Western European countries strongly agree that the state should help the needy is because these countries already had a set influence to follow. “Most other nations around the world, such as France, Britain, China, and Japan, are bound by a common birth lineage that serves to define the cultural uniqueness of the nation.” (Dautrich 11). Most of the civilization in Western Europe have followed the political culture that was put in place by their ancestors. America, on the other hand, had no such thing to