Americans want to get tough on crime across the board. That means tougher sentences, tougher courts, and stricter gun control laws.

In January 1995, ABC News/Washington Post interviewers found that 77 percent wanted Congress to keep in place “a law making it illegal to sell assault weapons.” In April and in June, roughly identical numbers in the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll said Congress should keep the ban. Only two in ten disagreed. A Yankelovich Partners poll in April 1995 approached the issue differently. Yankelovich asked whether it should be illegal for people to own handguns or, separately, to own semiautomatic assault guns. Forty percent favored making it illegal to own handguns; 55 percent did not. Forty-eight percent supported making it illegal for citizens to own semi-automatic assault guns; 50 percent dissented.

The public is dubious about the effects of a ban on assault weapons. In the Yankelovich poll, 46 percent said making the sale or possession of semiautomatic weapons illegal would reduce the amount of violent crime; 51 percent said it would not.

National surveys point out complexities in opinion; they can’t tell us how an issue as highly charged as this one plays out in individual races.

"The weight of survey evidence today suggests people see big government as a much greater problem."--Karlyn Bowman 

Big Business, Big Labor, and Big Government

Are attitudes about big business souring because of downsizing, CEO salaries, and Pat Buchanan’s rhetorical attacks? Polls over the past 50 years find considerable skepticism about big institutions, and business is no exception to this general disposition. But there is little survey evidence to suggest a new backlash against business.

The weight of survey evidence today suggests people see big government as a much greater problem. Over the past 30 years, Gallup has asked Americans on a number of occasions whether big business, big government, or big labor poses the biggest threat to the country in the future. In 1968, 46 percent said big government was the biggest threat to the country in the future; 26 percent said big labor; and 12 percent, big business.

Union power has declined substantially in the last three decades, and in the August survey, only 9 percent said it represented the greatest threat. Twice as many (24 percent) named big business as had in l968, but that percentage was dwarfed by the number mentioning big government. Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) said big government represents the most serious threat.

Other survey results suggest that people are much more concerned about government than about business. A February CBS News/New York Times poll found 60 percent of those surveyed saying that government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals; only 20 percent said government should be doing more to solve national problems.

China and Taiwan

Americans are never spoiling for a fight, and new polls show strong reluctance about involving US troops in a controversy involving mainland China and Taiwan.

In mid-March, 64 percent of those in an ABC News/Washington Post poll opposed the use of US troops if China invades Taiwan, while 31 percent favored using them. The results were virtually identical to those in a February Harris poll and consistent with polling data over several decades that have revealed caution about sending US troops overseas.

That said, Americans are sympathetic to Taiwan’s position and supportive of democratic yearnings. In the Harris poll nearly seven in ten felt Taiwan should be reunified with China only if the Taiwanese want this to happen; 18 percent said they should never be reunified; and 2 percent that they should be reunited under some circumstances.

Positive views of mainland China fell after Tiananmen, and although there has been some recovery in China’s standing, Taiwan is viewed much more favorably than China (59 percent favorable to 22 percent unfavorable for Taiwan, 39 percent favorable to 51 percent unfavorable for the mainland in a March Gallup poll).

The President in Japan

Thirty-five years ago, when President Eisenhower was scheduled to become the first American president to visit Japan, the trip was canceled amid protests over the Mutual Security Treaty. When President Clinton visits Japan later this month, the Security Treaty will be an issue again.

A review of the survey evidence shows the treaty is more popular today than it was then, and that the US-Japanese relationship, not without friction, is stronger. In 1960, only 31 percent of Americans described Japan as a dependable ally. When Gallup last posed the question in 1995, a majority saw Japan this way.

In late October, about a month after the brutal rape of an Okinawan girl by US servicemen, a Louis Harris/Asahi Shimbun survey found 76 percent of Americans and 64 percent of Japanese felt it was necessary to maintain the Security Treaty. Twenty-one percent of Japanese disagreed.

A Gallup/Yomiuri Shimbun poll taken at about the same time found 63 percent of Americans and 57 percent of Japanese saying it “was definitely” or “may be” in each nation’s interest to keep the treaty the same. Support for the treaty notwithstanding, the Japanese continue to want to reduce the US military presence in Japan.

When people in both countries are asked to look ahead, they confirm the sturdiness of the relationship. A March 1995 Wall Street Journal/Nihon Kenzai Shimbun revealed that 76 percent of Americans and nearly as many Japanese (69 percent) believe the two nations will be military allies 20 years from now.

Karlyn H. Bowman is a resident fellow at AEI.