American exceptionalism

American exceptionalism is the theory that the United States is "qualitatively different" from other states.[2] In this view, U.S. exceptionalism stems from its emergence from a revolution, becoming what political scientist Seymour Martin Lipset called "the first new nation"[2] and developing a uniquely American ideology, "Americanism", based on liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, republicanism, populism and laissez-faire.[3] This ideology itself is often referred to as "American exceptionalism."

Although the term does not necessarily imply superiority, many neoconservative and American conservative writers have promoted its use in that sense.[3][4] To them, the United States is like the biblical shining "City upon a Hill", and exempt from historical forces that have affected other countries.[5]

The theory of exceptionalism can be traced to Alexis de Tocqueville, the first writer to describe the United States as "exceptional" in 1831 and 1840.[6] The term "American exceptionalism" has been in use since at least the 1920s and saw more common use after Soviet leader Joseph Stalin chastised members of the Jay Lovestone-led faction of the American Communist Party for their heretical belief that America was independent of the Marxist laws of history "thanks to its natural resources, industrial capacity, and absence of rigid class distinctions". American Communists started using the English term "American exceptionalism" in factional fights. It then moved into general use among intellectuals.[7][8] In 1989 Scottish political scientist Richard Rose noted that most American historians endorse exceptionalism. He suggests that these historians reason as follows:

"America marches to a different drummer. Its uniqueness is explained by any or all of a variety of reasons: history, size, geography, political institutions, and culture. Explanations of the growth of government in Europe are not expected to fit American experience, and vice versa."[9]

However, postnationalist scholars have rejected American exceptionalism, arguing that the United States had not broken from European history, and accordingly, the United States has retained class inequities, race-based inequalities, imperialism and war. Furthermore, they see most nations as subscribing to some form of exceptionalism.[10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism