'The European Dream' (a la 'The American Dream'), by Jeffrey Tobin, I think, and the premise of the book was basically that *with exceptions on both sides*, Europeans care more about the greater good and Americans are more self-centered (present company probably very much excepted).
And on your (2), yeah, I've been kind of bewildered about this for years. My dad was a state college professor, and when I was growing up, I never thought, nor ever heard my parents say anything bad about, the government or taxes. Certain specific politicians, yes! But never the govt. as a whole. Whether it was the post office, national park rangers, state parks & wildlife guys, state agencies, whatever I was around growing up, I thought the government was basically GOOD, actually. And still think it is, or can be, with the right people running it.