Aussies in top three in national pride poll Friday Mar 3 07:00 AEDT Australians came in third, but Americans and Venezuelans, whose governments are at loggerheads, are the world's leaders in pride in their countries, according to a new report published yesterday.
"When it comes to being proud about their country, people in the United States and Venezuela lead the world," the National Opinion Research Centre, the producer of the report, said in a statement.
The poll, conducted in 33 countries, also found that European countries ranked among the lowest in national pride.
"The United States was the nation with the leading score in pride over specific accomplishments and Venezuela was the leading nation in the general national pride portion of the survey," the centre said.
Relations between their governments have been tense since populist, leftist Hugo Chavez was elected Venezuelan president in 1998 and struck up close relations with Cuba.
The centre noted that the United States and Venezuela, like most of the top 10 nations in the survey, are relatively new nations that once were colonies.
"These countries formed their national identities through conflicts that bound their people together and created a national story that resonates with citizens," said Tom Smith, director of the General Social Survey at the center.
Smith co-authored the report with University of Chicago researcher Seokho Kim.
On the general pride measure, Venezuela ranked solidly in first place with 18.4 of a possible score of 25, followed by the United States at 17.7, Australia at 17.5, Austria at 17.4 and Chile at 17.1.
In the category of pride over specific accomplishments, the United States led with a score of 4.0, followed by Venezuela at 3.6, Australia at 2.9, South Africa at 2.7 and Austria at 2.4.
At the bottom of the national pride ranking was the eastern portion of Germany. Taiwan was the only non-European country in the bottom 10, which also included the western portion of Germany, France, Switzerland and Sweden.
"It could be that those nations are experiencing a response to globalism, particularly among young people. Many identify as much as being Europeans as they do as being citizens of their own country," Smith said.
"In some European nations, the concept of strong patriotism also has negative connotations," he added.
wasnt too much national pride under the previous regimes, particularly keating and the divisive multiculturalists of the left and their catchcry of "racism" when their pet project was challenged.
Hopefully , its gone the way of the other "isms" , a failed social experiment in national castration............thanks Mr Howard for removing the straight jacket of the socialists.
