Pourquoi aux Etats Unis la communauté est entendue de manière très restrictive (amis, voisins,...) alors qu'en France la communauté est un organisme plus global (Europe...)?

I am really intrigued to see that you all seem to be very influenced by current political events (this is evident here with the EU and in the USA question with Bush, Iraq, WTC). I am also quite surprised to notice that young French people seem to embrace the idea of the European community - with all the nationalism/chauvinism stereotypes, one would expect a certain degree of resistance.

In answer to your question - I think that because USA is such a large and heterogeneous country, people find support in smaller groups. Let me try and give you a succession: individual-family-community-neighborhood-city(-maybe state)-nation. Community in the US has really narrowed down both spatially and in terms of meaning, and in fact, has almost become an administrative unit.

It seems to me that the difference between the responses are due to the fact that European politicians, and Europeans in general, have been rallying around the idea of the Europeans to feel as a big community of people that share the same interests and problems; and also that the results of the integration process have taken place in recent years, and is still in the political agenda of all the EU countries. Do you think this view reflects the reality over there?

To answer, Josselin de Richoufftz, I agree with Milena. The population in the US can be compared (I heard this somewhere, I don't remember where) to a salad, all the ingredients mixed together but keeping their flavor separate.

I think the reason of this is that in US individualism is something very important. In this context, community has a much smaller reach. Community will be the ones not too far from us. Another important fact,
is the multicultural character of the US society. Every ethnicity tends to develope its own community. Europe seems to be more globalized in terms of community views, maybe after the second world war and the economic prosperity of the US people learnt the tremendous importance of a global community.