Contractual Origins of Anti-Americanism: Pew 2013 Results

Abstract

Economic Norms Theory (ENT) implies that anti-modernist and anti-market values flourish in countries where the central authority poorly monitors contracts that bind economic transactions. Decades of research show that ENT astutely predicts civil war and interstate war incidents, as well as people’s support for war, and suicide bombing in defense of Islam. This paper investigates the association between contract enforcement and anti-Americanism, which is the ENT’s core, yet is a statistically under-evaluated implication. Accordingly, in countries with poor economic contract monitoring, power-contending elites can attribute the resultant loss of prosperity to the USA and relatedly spread anti- American values among citizens. It is the urban poor who are cognitively most available to adopt such elite-driven anti-Americanism since they tend to be hurt most socially and economically by unfulfilled market contracts. To investigate this argument, I statistically estimate random intercept models on a sample of Pew Global Attitudes Project’s 2013 survey results. I observe that a three-way interaction among individuals’ urbanity, poverty, and their nations’ poor contract enforcement indicators increase anti-Americanism.

Keywords

• Anti-Americanism
• urban poverty
• Economic Norms Theory
• Hierarchical Modelling

References

1. Acemoğlu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
2. Ades, Alberto F., and Edward L. Glaeser. “Trade and Circuses: Explaining Urban Giants.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 110, no. 1 (1995): 195-227.
3. “Aid (ODA) Commitments to Countries and Regions [DAC3A].” OECD.Stat. December 1, 2023. Accessed date December 10, 2023. https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=TABLE3A
4. Ajami, Fouad. “The Falseness of Anti-Americanism.” Foreign Policy 138, (2003): 52-61.
5. Allen, Michael A., et al. “Outside the Wire: US Military Deployments and Public Opinion in Host States.” American Political Science Review 114, no. 2 (2020): 326-341.
6. Anand, Nikhil. “Pressure: The Politechnics of Water supply in Mumbai.” Cultural Anthropology 26, no. 4 (2011): 542-562.
7. Aydın, Mustafa et al. Türkiye Sosyal-Siyasal Eğilimler Araştırması 2018. İstanbul: Kadir Has University Turkey Research Centre, 2019. https://www.khas.edu.tr/khas-kurumsal-arastirmalar/
8. Beyer, Heiko, and Ulf Liebe. “Anti-Americanism in Europe: Theoretical Mechanisms and Empirical Evidence.” European Sociological Review 30, no. 1 (2014): 90-106.

9. Blaydes, Lisa, and Drew A. Linzer. “Elite Competition, Religiosity, and Anti-Americanism in the Islamic World.” American Political Science Review 106, no. 2 (2012): 225-243.
10. Bourdeau-Lepage, Lise, and Jean-Marie Huriot. “Megacities without Global Functions.” Belgeo Revue belge de géographie 1, (2007): 95-114.
11. Brambor, Thomas, William Roberts Clark, and Matt Golder. “Understanding Interaction Models: Improving Empirical Analyses.” Political Analysis 14, no. 1 (2006): 63-82.
12. Campbell, Angus, et al. The American Voter. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1960.
13. Chidambaram, Soundarya. “The “Right” Kind of Welfare in South India’s Urban Slums: Seva vs. Patronage and the Success of Hindu Nationalist Organizations.” Asian Survey 52, no. 2 (2012): 298-320.
14. Chiozza, Giacomo. “Disaggregating Anti-Americanism.” In Anti-Americanisms in World Politics, edited by Peter J. Katzenstein and Robert O. Keohane, 93-126. New York: Cornell University Press, 2007.
15. Cole, Juan. “Anti-Americanism: It’s the Policies.” The American Historical Review 111, no. 4 (2006): 1120-1129.
16. Converse, Philip E. “Changing Conceptions of Public Opinion in the Political Process.” The Public Opinion Quarterly 51, (1987): 12-24.
17. de Mesquita, Bruce Bueno, et al. The Logic of Political Survival. Cambridge, MA: MIT University Press, 2003.
18. Desmond, Matthew. “Disposable Ties and the Urban Poor.” American Journal of Sociology 117, no. 5 (2012): 1295-1335.
19. Druckman, James N., Erik Peterson, and Rune Slothuus. “How Elite Partisan Polarization Affects Public Opinion Formation.” American Political Science Review 107, no. 1 (2013): 57-79.
20. Dutch, Raymond M. and Randolph T. Stevenson. The Economic Vote: How Political and Economic Institutions Condition Election Results. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
21. Fabbrini, Sergio. “Anti-Americanism and US Foreign Policy: Which Correlation?” International Politics 47, (2010): 557-573.
22. Festinger, Leon. A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford University Press, 1957.
23. Gentzkow, Matthew A., and Jesse M. Shapiro. “Media, Education and Anti-Americanism in the Muslim World.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 18, no. 3 (2004): 117-133.
24. Gienow-Hecht, Jessica C. E. “Always Blame the Americans: Anti-Americanism in Europe in the Twentieth Century.” The American Historical Review 111, no. 4 (2006): 1067-1091.
25. Golder, Matt. “Interactions.” MattGolder.com. Accessed date November 10, 2023. http://mattgolder.com/interactions
26. Granatstein, Jack L., and Reginald C. Stuart. “Yankee go Home? Canadians & Anti-Americanism.” The American Review of Canadian Studies 27, no. 2 (1997): 293-310.
27. Greene, Joshua. Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason and the Gap Between Us and Them. NY, New York City: Penguin Books, 2013.
28. Grigoriadis, Ioannis N. “Friends No More? The Rise of Anti-American Nationalism in Turkey.” The Middle East Journal 64, no. 1 (2010): 51-66.
29. Inglehart, Ronald, and Paul R. Abramson. “Economic Security and Value Change.” American Political Science Review 88, no. 2 (1994): 336-354.
30. Jamal, Amaney A., et al. “Anti-Americanism and Anti-Interventionism in Arabic Twitter Discourses.” Perspectives on Politics 13, no. 1 (2015): 55-73.
31. Katzenstein, Peter J., and Robert O. Keohane, Anti-Americanisms in World Politics New York: Cornell University Press, 2007.
32. Kim, Jinwung. “Recent Anti-Americanism in South Korea: The Causes.” Asian Survey 29, no. 8 (1989): 749-763.
33. Kizilbash, Hamid H. “Anti-Americanism in Pakistan.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 497, no. 1 (1988): 58-67.
34. Krieger, Tim, and Daniel Meierrieks. “The Rise of Capitalism and the Roots of Anti-American Terrorism.” Journal of Peace Research 52, no. 1 (2015): 46-61.
35. Makdisi, Ussama. “Anti-Americanism in the Arab World: An Interpretation of a Brief History,” The Journal of American History 89, no. 2 (2002): 538-557.
36. Marshall, Monty G., Ted R. Gurr, and Keith Jaggers. “Polity IV Project: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800-2015.” Systematic Peace. June 6, 2016. Accessed date December 10, 2023. http://www.systemicpeace.org/inscrdata.html.
37. Meunier, Sophie. “The Dog That Did Not Bark: Anti-Americanism and the 2008 Financial Crisis in Europe.” Review of International Political Economy 20, no. 1 (2013): 1-25.
38. Milgrom, Paul R., Douglass C. North, and Barry R. Weingast, “The Role of Institutions in the Revival of Trade: The Law Merchant, Private Judges, and the Champagne Fairs,” Economics & Politics 2, no. 1 (1990): 1-23.
39. Mousseau, Michael. “Market Civilization and Its Clash with Terror.” International Security 27, no. 3 (2002): 5-29.
40. Mousseau, Michael. “Market Prosperity, Democratic Consolidation, and Democratic Peace,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 44, no. 4 (2000): 472-507.
41. Mousseau, Michael. “The End of War: How a Robust Marketplace and Liberal Hegemony Are Leading to Perpetual World Peace,” International Security 44, no. 1 (2019): 160-196.
42. Mousseau, Michael. “Urban Poverty and Support for Islamist Terror: Survey Results of Muslims in Fourteen Countries,” Journal of Peace Research 48, no. 1 (2011): 35-47.
43. Nisbet, Erik C., and Teresa A. Myers. “Anti-American Sentiment as a Media Effect? Arab Media, Political Identity, and Public Opinion in the Middle East.” Communication Research 38, no. 5 (2010): 684-709.
44. Onat, Ismail, et al. “Framing anti-Americanism in Turkey: An Empirical Comparison of Domestic and International Media.” International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics 16, no. 2 (2020): 139-157.
45. Ostrom, Elinor. Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
46. Page, Benjamin I., Robert Y. Shapiro, and Glenn R. Dempsey. “What Moves Public Opinion?” American Political Science Review 81, no. 1 (1987): 23-43.
47. “Pew 2007 Spring Survey Data.” Pew Research Center. April 2-May 28, 2007. Accessed date November 10, 2023. https://www.pewresearch.org/global/dataset/spring-2007-survey-data/
48. “Pew 2013 Spring Survey Data.” Pew Research Center. March 2-May 1, 2013. Accessed date November 10, 2023. https://www.pewresearch.org/global/dataset/spring-2013-survey-data/
49. “Pew Summer 2002 Survey Data.” Pew Research Center. July 2-October 31, 2002. Accessed date November 10, 2023. https://www.pewresearch.org/global/dataset/summer-2002-survey-data/
50. Polanyi, Karl. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston: Beacon, 1944.
51. Rabe-Hesketh, Sophia, and Anders Skrondal. Multilevel and Longitudinal Modeling using Stata. Texas: STATA Press, 2008.
52. Reingold, David A. “Social Networks and the Employment Problem of the Urban Poor.” Urban Studies 36, no. 11 (1999): 1907-1932.
53. Rinke, Eike Mark, Lars Willnat, and Thorsten Quandt. “The Obama Factor: Change and Stability in Cultural and Political anti-Americanism.” International Journal of Communication 9, no. 1 (2015): 2954-2979.
54. “The Strength of Legal Rights Index.” TheWorldBank.com. September 16, 2021. Accessed date November 10, 2023. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IC.LGL.CRED.XQ?end=2013&start=2013
55. Tokdemir, Efe. “Winning Hearts & Minds (!) The Dilemma of Foreign Aid in Anti-Americanism.” Journal of Peace Research 54, no. 6 (2017): 819-832.
56. Zaller, John R. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992.