Dems: Big Business is bigger threat; GOP: Big Government is biggest threat
New Gallup Poll says GOP, Dems split over whether Big Govt. or Big Business Greater Threat
Now, 80% of Republicans view big government as the biggest threat to the country, up from 68% in December 2006.
At the same time, Democrats' perceptions of the greater threat are completely reversed. In December 2006, 55% of Democrats said big government posed the greater threat, while 32% said big business did.
In the latest poll, a majority of Democrats now view big business as the greater threat (52%) while only about one in three think big government is.
From the 1960s through the early 1980s, half or less of Americans named big government as the greatest threat. That view expanded greatly in the 1990s -- reaching a high of 65% in 1999 and 2000 -- as concerns about the power of big labor greatly subsided.
In 2002, after the wave of accounting scandals at companies like Enron and WorldCom, opinions shifted, and the percentage mentioning big business as the greatest threat peaked at 38%, while concern about big government dipped below the majority level for the first time since 1981.
As the accounting crisis faded in people's memories, Americans again became more concerned with the reach of government (reaching 61% in 2005 and 2006), until the recent financial crisis caused more to fear the power of big business.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/117739/Big-Gov-Viewed-Greater-Threat-Big-Business.aspx