American exceptionalism

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Amerocentrism redirects here. For the generalized topic, see Ethnocentrism

American exceptionalism, a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville in 1831, has been historically referred to as the perception that the United States differs qualitatively from other developed nations, because of its unique origins, national credo, historical evolution, and distinctive political and religious institutions.1

American exceptionalism is the idea that the United States and the American people hold a special place in the world, by offering opportunity and hope for humanity, derived from a unique balance of public and private interests governed by constitutional ideals that are focused on personal and economic freedom.

Political science defines it as presence of unique traits in the United States, such as a tradition of anti-authoritarianism, individualism, the failure of socialist parties, the geographical separation of The Americas from the rest of the world, and high levels of religious influence, particularly protestant Christianity, that do not correlate with national characteristics in either the similarly developed nations of Western Europe and Scandinavia, or in communist states or the Marxist-influenced populations of Latin America.

Some critics denounce American exceptionalism as a form of ethnocentrism.

Some interpret the term to indicate a moral superiority of Americans, while others use it to refer to the American concept as itself an exceptional ideal, which may or may not always be upheld by the actual people and government of the nation. Dissenters claim "American exceptionalism" is common ethnocentrism and little more than crude propaganda, that in essence is a justification for an America-centered view of the world that is inherently chauvinistic and jingoistic in nature. Historians and political scientists may use the term to simply refer to some case of American uniqueness without implying that an innate superiority of Americans resulted in the development of that uniqueness.

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Causes in their historical context

Supporters of American exceptionalism often describe the term as refering to a popularized cultural mythos that delivers a benevolent explanation for why and how American society succeeded. In essence it claims that a "deliberate choice" of "freedom over tyranny" was properly made, and this was the central reason for why American society developed "successfully." Some look skeptically upon this view as simply another example of a tendency within local societies to develop their own natural national folklore which gives them a sense of national pride. With this opinion, American exceptionalism is one of many national exceptionalist movements.

The origins of the concept and the usage of the term have changed as the United States has changed as described below.

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Puritan Roots

The earliest ideologies of English colonists in the country were the protestants of the Puritan settlers of New England. Many Puritans with Arminian leanings embraced a middle ground between strict predestination and a looser theology of Divine Providence. They believed God had made a covenant with their people and had chosen them to lead the other nations of the earth. One Puritan leader, John Winthrop, expressed this idea with the metaphor of a "City on a Hill" - that the Puritan community of New England should serve as a model community for the rest of the world. His metaphor is often used by proponents of exceptionalism.

Although the Puritan worldview of New England itself changed dramatically, and although different Protestant traditions were strong in the Middle Colonies and the South, the Puritans' deep moralistic values remained part of the national identity for centuries and arguably remain so today. Although American exceptionalism is now primarily secular in nature, a portion of it stems from America's Puritan roots. The Religious Right, including evangelical and fundamentalist groups that have a heritage similar to Puritanism, currently are major proponents of exceptionalism.

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The American Revolution and Republicanism

Another event often cited as a milestone in the history of American Exceptionalism is the American Revolution. The intellectuals of the Revolution (Thomas Paine's Common Sense is the best example) for the first time expressed the belief that America was not just an extension of Europe but a new land, a country of nearly unlimited potential and opportunity that was being abused by the British mother country they had outgrown. These sentiments laid the intellectual foundations for the Revolutionary concept of American exceptionalism and was closely tied to republicanism, the belief that sovereignty belonged to the people, not to a hereditary ruling class.

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Immigration and the availability of resources

Alexis de Tocqueville visited the United States during a time of unprecedented growth. The United States was often seen as exceptional because of unlimited immigration policies and the vast resources of land and land incentivization programs during much of the 19th century. Even though those programs are for the most part in the distant past, popular attitudes within the United States often link patriotism and nationalism to them; many hold the view that the country is unique today because of what was done back then. Others countries that have had unlimited immigration and incentives for land exploitation until it is no longer of economic benefit include Australia and Canada.

Some associate the phrase with the term Manifest Destiny which was employed by Democrats in the Jacksonian Era to assert a divine right to occupy much of North America.

Some associate the phrase with rampant materialism and consumerism. The unprecedented availability of natural resources and the drive to utilize them are the root causes of American exceptionalism for those who hold these views.

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Political stability

The fact that the same form of government under the same constitution has been in place for nearly all of the nation's history since 1789 is viewed as exceptional by many. However, this fact may also be viewed as an explanation for the existence of exceptionalism. The mythology of American culture is inextricably linked to its government because the culture lacks the experience of other governmental forms.

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The Cold War

American exceptionalism during the Cold War was often cast by the mass media as the American Way of Life personifying liberty engaged in a battle with tyranny as represented by communism. These attributions made use of the residual sentiment that had originally formed to differentiate the United States from the 19th century European powers and had been applied multiple times in multiple contexts before it was used to differentiate capitalist democracies (with the United States as a leader) from communist nations.

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Aspects of arguments for American exceptionalism

Those who believe in American exceptionalism argue that there are many ways that the United States clearly differs from the European world that it emerged from, as well as other countries in the globe. It is important to note that the term does not in any way imply superiority. For example, some of America's most distinctive characteristics include the legacy of slavery and segregation in the South. V.O. Key's Southern Politics in State and Nation (1951) argues that Southern politics is "exceptional" even within the American system. By this, he simply meant distinctly marked by the legacy of slavery, not praiseworthy.

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Republican ethos and ideas about nationhood

Proponents of American exceptionalism argue that the U.S. is unique in that it was founded on a set of republican ideals, rather than on a common heritage, ethnicity, or ruling elite. In the formulation of President Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address, America is a nation "conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal". In this view, being American is inextricably connected with loving and defending freedom and equal opportunity. As such, America has often acted to promote these ideals abroad, most notably in the First and Second World Wars and in the Cold War. Critics argue that American policy in these conflicts was more motivated by economic or military self-interest; most observers admit both the idealistic and the self-interested motivations, to varying degrees. Indeed the US is by no means the only country founded as a republic with such ideals -although it was perhaps the first such country: Brazil and the French republic are examples.

The United States's polity have been characterized since their inception by a system of federalism and checks and balances, which were designed to prevent any person, faction, region, or government organ from becoming too powerful. Some American exceptionalists argue that this system and the accompanying distrust of concentrated power prevent the United States from suffering a "tyranny of the majority", and also that it allows citizens to live in a locality whose laws reflect that citizen's values. A consequence of this political system is that laws can vary greatly across the country, with some states' laws being more progressive and other states' laws being more conservative than the values of the nation as a whole. For instance, the rather libertarian state of Vermont legalized homosexual civil unions, a rather progressive move, before sodomy was decriminalized by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 affecting conservative and liberal states alike. Critics of American exceptionalism maintain that this system merely replaces the power of the national majority over states with power by the states over local entities. On balance, the American political system arguably allows more local dominance but prevents more national dominance than does a more unitary system.

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Frontier spirit

Proponents of American exceptionalism often claim that the "American spirit" or the "American identity" was created at the frontier (following Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis), where rugged and untamed conditions gave birth to American national vitality. Other nations that had long frontiers--such as Russia, Canada and Australia, did not allow individualistic pioneers to settle there, and did not experience the same psychological and cultural impact.

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The American Revolution

The American Revolutionary War is the claimed ideological territory of "exceptionalists". The intellectuals of the Revolution, such as Thomas Paine, arguably shaped America into a nation fundamentally different from its European ancestry, creating modern democracy as we know it. Others counter that there is nothing unique about revolutions - the English revolution (English civil war) was a century prior to the American revolution and led to constitutional monarchy as a consequence. The French revolution also arguably led to a form of modern democracy.

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See also

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Notes

  • Note 1: Foreword: on American Exceptionalism; Symposium on Treaties, Enforcement, and U.S. Sovereignty, Stanford Law Review, May 1 2003, Pg. 1479
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Further reading

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External links

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