American Exceptionalism[1]

 

“Exceptional”? (different, special, superior?)

 

“American Exceptionalism is a term given to the belief that the United States of America and the American people hold a special place in the world, by offering opportunity and hope for humanity, derived from its unique balance of public and private interests governed by constitutional ideals that are focused on personal and economic freedom.

 

Those who believe in American Exceptionalism argue that there are many ways that the United States clearly differs from the European world from which it emerged.

 

The phrase is thought to have originated by Alexis deTocqueville in his famous book Democracy in America. 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 that may or may not always be upheld by the actual people and the government of the nation.  Dissenters to the above view claim American Exceptionalism is little more than crude propaganda, that in essence is a justification for an America-centered view of the world.”

 

  • “America founded on a set of ideals rather than on a common heritage, ethnicity, or ruler”
  • “Land of Opportunity” – belief in meritocracy
  • Religious freedom (religious pluralism)

 

[Look at Lipset hand-out]

 

History of the Idea

  • “City Upon a Hill” and the Protestant worldview
  • The American Revolution, constitutional government
  • DeCrevecoeur, DeToqueville
  • “Manifest Destiny,” F.J. Turner

 

 

American Prosperity

  • Abundance: space/land, raw materials
  • Demographics: fast growing population
  • Constitution: creates the biggest free market in the world
  • Technological innovation

 

“Why Is There No Socialism in the United States?” (1906)

  1. Upward Social Mobility  (better than Europe)
  2. Geographic Mobility

C.    Job Mobility

  1. Diversity
  2. Strength of Capitalist Class

 

[Define capitalism: the means of production & distribution are privately owned and operated for profit, under fully competitive conditions; characterized by a concentration of wealth and, in its later phase, by the growth of giant corporations

 

socialism: means of production & distribution are owned & operated by society or the community rather than by private individuals, with all members of society or the community sharing in the work and the products (no profit or concentration of wealth)]

 

Critiques of Am. Except.

  • self-serving mythology;  arrogance
  • American development rooted in material conditions rather than special wisdom or ideological choices
  • U.S. government/leaders more motivated by economic self-interest
  • A.E. overlooks unequal granting of political rights over America’s history; overlooks inequality, oppression, & conflict
  • “while America may have no formal aristocracy, privilege and social stratification are just as strong here as anywhere else”
  • Westward Expansion (the Frontier Experience) was more about conquest of people & lands than about cultivating wilderness

 

 

 

 

 

Excerpts from www.therfcc.org/american-values-15171.html

 

 


[1] Excerpts from www.therfcc.org/american-values-15171.html