Dalia Research, the Alliance for Democracies and Rasmussen International have released the results of the Democracy Perception Index, the largest study of its kind, based on interviews with 124,000 people in 53 countries around the world. It contains some interesting results – some heartening, others less so. This map, in particular, has jumped out at me since I’ve always been interested in global perceptions of the United States (having had a generally positive one since I was a child, which I guess is what happens when you grow up under communism):

If you didn’t know a thing about international politics, you could...