American Exceptionalism

Alexis de Tocqueville

Is the US exceptional? Is it different from all other nations?

As a non-American, and one who has lived in many countries, including the US, my answer is yes.

First, most nations are racial entities. Belonging to that nationality depends on having a certain genetic makeup. This is the universal norm. A few other nations are geographical—you live there, you belong. That’s Canada, Australia, perhaps New Zealand. Only in the US is belonging to the nation based on certain implied ideas or ideals, as per the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Only there could there be a House Committee on Un-American Activities examining those who did not share these ideals.

This can be either good or bad; in this sense, “American Exceptionalism” is a Catholic heresy. That is, it is heretical to hold that the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights supersede the doctrines of the Church. As many Americans naturally assume they do.

Second, the US is uniquely democratic. Other nations may have governments that function more democratically in various ways: in Britain, for example, Parliament is supreme, whereas the American Congress is subject to the unelected Supreme Court. Australia’s preferential ballot system is more democratic than America’s ‘first-past-the-post,” which reflects the popular will imperfectly. Italians have more parties to choose from. But in America, unlike these other countries, with perhaps the exception of Australia, the culture itself is democratic. In America, there is no great separation between popular art and high art; the taste of the common man rules. Bob Dylan is proposed for the Nobel Prize; the Grand Opera is the Grand Old Opry; Campbell's Soup is art; everyone is famous for fifteen minutes. There is no dismissal, rather there is glorification, of the self-made man. There is less class consciousness, in practical terms, in the US than anywhere else. Including, I suspect, Australia, where solidarity is based on a sense of being lower class and having scores to settle with other classes.

Third, the US is just a heck of a lot bigger, and more internally unified, than most other countries you could name. It is a continent among countries. Yes, China is bigger—but China is far more internally diverse. While artificially united by a written language, the spoken languages of China differ region to region. This internal diversity is yet truer of India, Indonesia, Pakistan. As a unified culture, the US is vaster than anyone. When one factors in the essentially shared cultures of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Britain, it is vaster again. This makes it uniquely qualified to be a world cultural leader. Nobody else has a clear chance of overcoming it in this regard; the Spanish and the Arabic spheres are probably the real-world closest competitors; but lacking the US's political unity.

Given these factors, I am also of the opinion that the US is nowhere near the end of its run as a dominant world power. There’s just nobody else in the wings capable of replacing it. There is no other nation so identified with an ideology of such universal appeal. There is no other cultural pool so large. There is no other nation with a creative class so united by a moral ideal.