The American responses are very concrete: they feel their country needs reforms in all sectors: political, economic, educational. The French responses are more abstract focusing more on concepts and ideals such as acceptance, hope, tolerance, respect and ambition. Is this because French people are more idealistic than Americans?

The American responses have also tended to have a very negative undertone. Are the French also more hopeful and optimistic than Americans?

I noticed that the american responses tended to be a lotmore detailed than the french ones. We pointed out specific things that we needed whereas the french tended to be more generic.

I agree that the french responses weren't as negative as the american. Could this go back to an earlier discussion where the french are reluctant to cast their country in a bad light?

Les réponses sont très marquées par le contexte de crise que nous vivions. Des deux côtés le système politique et le besoin d'intégration des peuples qui vivent sur le territoire français est mis en valeur. Du côté américain le mot "racisme" fait surface. J'ai été étonne de voir l'importance attribuée au besoin d'un leader politique en France. A ce que paraît l'élection du nouveau président français n'a pas fait fureur.

I wonder if the character of the American responses was influenced by the run-up to the election.  It seems like everywhere you look, there are people expressing what our country needs.  This is the one time every four years when we feel like we can really influence the direction the country will take. 

It would be interesting to do the survey again when we are a little further from our presidential election, as the French are now.

Many of the American responses dealt with political leaders and changes in the political system.  Especially with the upcoming election here in the United States, it seems that so many Americans think that the president has the immediate power to easily make their lives better, and that it his responsibility to do so.  Of course the president does have a great deal of power, but in America, it seems that people expect him to fix the economy and their lives in an instant, which is somewhat ridiculous.  My view could be somewhat skewed coming from the conservative South.

Do the French people think similarly of their president?  Do they expect the president to quickly fix theirs and the country's problems?  Or is this an American view?

I agree with everything that has been said. To address what Zachary asked, I think the French have the same unrealistic expectations of their new president (at least that's the impression I got from the article about violence in Marseille that Prof. Levet pointed out today).

I actually also found it very interesting that many Americans said that the U.S. needs to educated the ignorant/get a better education system. I find the call for better education surprising, since the U.S. already has one of the best educational systems out there. I do understand though that the educational system allows for a lot of ignorance about what happens in the world, so maybe a fix there might alleviate this issue. I think the overall system is fine though (except maybe that Universities are too expensive).

I, too, noticed that the American responses seemed heavily influenced by the upcoming election. I also come from the conservative South, and I have come across many people who have similarly outrageous ("instant cure!") expectations of the President. I think these expectations are brought about by discussions of previous Presidents ("in four years, he only managed to do x, but I have a plan to do x, y, z" or "you saw the state Mr. Previous President left our economy in") in which we associate all of the statistical facts and figures of the country's progress (or decline) with the President at the time. This association happens even when it is obvious that the President had no control over such positive or negative events. I can see how these expectations could exist in France, too, so I'd like to hear from someone who can enlighten us more on this matter.

@Sven: The US educational system is excellent at the university level, but many people would agree that the public school system in many parts of the country is broken. Public school funding is highly dependent on standardized test results, which facilitates a strong incentive to cheat the system. Furthermore, corruption, cronyism and racketeering are not uncommon in public school administration bureaucracies. I experienced this firsthand: my school system's superindendent was recently imprisoned for giving jobs to family friends and spending tax money on himself and his partners. (These are only a few of the long list of illegal activities he engaged in!) For these reasons I do not find the call for better education surprising at all.

@Zachary. Les attentes envers notre président sont les mêmes que les vôtres. A chaque élection nous espérons élire un président qui sera redresser la France, la sortir de la crise, faire baisser le chômage, faire sortir de la misère les plus pauvres mais les désillusions sont toujours les mêmes quelque soit le parti au pouvoir. Cela ne vient peut-être pas de l'homme au pouvoir mais de la difficulté de la mission qui lui est confiée. Accéder à une économie "fleurissante" est une mission très difficile, et peut-être aussi qu'on ne relative pas assez les choses car nous ne sommes pas si mal en France comparé à d'autres pays d'Europe et du monde...

Continuing from something Henrique mentioned about the French talking about the need for integration, it's really interesting (and good to hear) that both sides have  stressed on humanitarian issues as opposed to just politics and troubles with the economy/unemployment. The French have written a lot about the need for more tolerance and accepting diversity and the Americans have also mentioned issues such as the importance of being tolerant and the need to be united.

The majority of the american responses about politics aren't focused on republicans vs democrats, but rather on fundamental flaws in the us political system as a whole (i.e, "neither Romney nor Obama", "less polarized government", "is a new political system"). I therefore don't think the responses are dependant on the upcoming election at all, but in contrast to what Aidan was saying, a realization that this election isn't going to fix anything because, regardless of the winner, the underlying problems aren't going to be addresed.

It is true that many of the American responses are concerned with the U.S. political system as whole but I feel that, just to echo previous responses, the current election is a big factor in what the U.S. needs.

I know that both the U.S. and France have expressed that both countries need more tolerance and mor acceptance of diversity, but what is the exact problem with diversity in France?