A large body of research suggests mass publics are capable of thinking coherently about
international relations. We extend this body of research to show that domain relevant
postures—in our case, more abstract beliefs about foreign policy—are related to how tough of
a line representative samples of US and UK respondents want their ...
A large body of research suggests mass publics are capable of thinking coherently about
international relations. We extend this body of research to show that domain relevant
postures—in our case, more abstract beliefs about foreign policy—are related to how tough of
a line representative samples of US and UK respondents want their governments to take
towards China. More specifically, we utilize a unique comparative survey of American and
British foreign policy attitudes to show broad support for toughness towards China. Beliefs
about the use of the military and attitudes regarding globalisation help explain preferences for
tough economic and military policies towards China. In the two countries, the relationship
between general foreign policy outlooks and the positions citizens take is robust to the
addition of a general mediator that controls for the general affect those surveyed have towards
China. Finally, the strength of the relationship between these abstract postures and specific
preferences for a China policy are different across the countries.