US support for capitalism sinks to new low in Gallup poll

A Gallup poll published Tuesday found Americans' view of capitalism has fallen to its lowest level since the company began tracking the public's views on various economic systems in 2010. 

According to the poll, 54% of Americans held a positive view of capitalism in 2025, down from 60% in 2021. By contrast, favorability toward socialism has remained steady at 39%.

Despite capitalism's decline in support, it is still viewed more positively than socialism, with about 57% of Americans expressing a negative view of the latter.

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Favorable views among both Democrats and independents toward capitalism have dropped eight points since 2021. For the first time, fewer than half of Democrats (42%) viewed capitalism positively, while only a slim majority of independents (51%) did.

Republicans' views of capitalism have remained relatively unchanged, with three-quarters maintaining a positive opinion of the system.

Since 2010, Democrats' favorability toward socialism has climbed from 50% to about two-thirds in 2025, while Republicans' and independents' views have generally remained steady.

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As noted by Gallup, "Democrats are the only partisan group of the three that views socialism more positively than capitalism - 66% to 42%, respectively. Independents are modestly more pro-capitalism than pro-socialism (51% vs. 38%), while Republicans are overwhelmingly so (74% vs. 14%)."

With support for capitalism declining, Americans' view of big business has also soured. Just 37% currently have a favorable view, while 62% hold an unfavorable one.

Perceptions of big business have sharply declined in recent years, including a 9-point drop this year and a 6-point drop in 2021. Americans' positive view peaked at 58% in 2012 and has declined every year since, except in 2019 when it gained two points before resuming its slide.

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While Gallup noted that Americans overall continue to be skeptical about socialism, more Democrats have held a positive view of socialism than capitalism since 2016. The pollsters connected this increase in Democrats' rising favorability of socialism to an uptick among Democratic officials who espouse the economic system. 

"Democrats' more positive views of socialism occur at a time when many high-profile Democratic officials - most notably, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani - have identified themselves as Democratic socialists and advocated policies calling for a significantly expanded government role in economic matters," Gallup reported.

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