Despite a common heritage, the social, economic,

Despite a common heritage, the social, economic, and political differences between the United States and Britain are, in some cases, great.

Like most west Europeans, Britons tend to have more left-wing views than Americans, but the first chart shows that this is often by a surprising margin. (“Left” and “right” are harder to locate than they were: here “left” implies a big-state, secular, socially liberal, internationalist and green outlook; right, the reverse.) The data are derived by subtracting left-wing answers from right-wing ones, for each country and for each main political grouping within each country. A net minus rating suggests predominantly left-wing views and a positive rating suggests a preponderance of right-wing views.

Compared to Britain, the US is a remarkably conservative nation. The companion chart is a good look at some of the data. (via gongblog)

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