US Americans and the British are often considered, especially in Continental Europe, "culturally similar" but this is probably just an urban legend due to the presumed cultural difference between most Europeans and both the British and the Americans.
The US have certainly a much more diverse society than the UK has, due to the different size the two countries cover. Differences can be found in many contexts. Some examples
- Americans are strongly republican, whereas most British people support the monarchy
- politically, Americans find it legitimate to be somewhat left-of-centre to somewhat right-of-centre, but there are certain issues on which a "moderate" is certainly more on the right than a moderate in the UK: abortion, LGBT issues, welfare state
- the texture of the British constituencies (that elect Members of Parliament) makes it so that there can be huge local differences, with MPs from opposite parties elected in neighbouring parts of the same town; in the US there is a reduced number of Representative and Senators for each State which tends to flatten the depth of political ideology
- the British, despite expressing several different positions on the issue, would always aim at a National Health System of some sort, providing free care without having to pay an insurance; this topic seems to be taboo to many Americans
- there is a different way equality and politically correctness play at different levels; on a typical issue, you would define the same person as "African American" in the US and "Black" in the UK; "Caucasian" in the US and "White" in the UK. No UK people would perceive this as being racist, however there is a very strong (and I would feel it as stronger than in many US places) social stigma against different kinds of racism and intolerance, ranging from ethnical issues to sexual orientation and disabilities
- the cultural heritage of most people in the US comes directly from fleeing religious oppression and the accent is on religious freedom; religion represents a big part of the public lives of people. In the UK, despite having established churches in England (the Church of England) and Scotland (the Presbyterian Church), religion is considered by most people as a private matter, and most people are not practising religious people or do not consider it as the defining aspect of their lives
- there is in vast parts of the UK an industrial heritage that constitute part of the political identity of those parts of the countries; at best of my knowledge, this process is not that marked in the US.
Written Apr 8, 2012 •