Some Proximate Causes for the Decline in American Exceptionalism

Abstract

Contrary to the contorted and perverse etymological evolution of the term American Exceptionalism, original debates on the meaning of the term largely emerged as intellectual exercises aimed at explaining the undeniable politico-economic fact that the US was virtually alone in the community of nations in lacking a significant socialist labor movement and a highly interventionist, centralized government. Simply stated, American society did not look like other countries. Even today American society is distinguished, among other things, by its lack of state run enterprises; by its abhorrence of central planning; by its weak support of labor unions; and by its palpable distrust in the concentration of political power. This notwithstanding, American Exceptionalism appears to be gradually vanishing as modern America moves more and more to the left, irresistibly embracing many of the attributes of the modern welfare state; complete with the cultivation of a seemingly permanent underclass, totally dependent on the noblesse oblige of the central government. This paper considers why America has begun losing its exceptionalism. It focuses upon the changes that have taken place to the US economy in the 20th and 21st centuries, and how these changes may be presumptively tied to modern liberal legislative acts and the gradual abandonment of a classical liberal interpretation of the US Constitution by the Supreme Court. It is asserted that the long term shift towards a modern liberal welfare state in the US has been motivated by an increasing dependence of the public and labor groups on the Federal government and that these groups are philosophically motivated by a desire to see America more closely align itself with the community of nations and to furthermore renounce its exceptionalism.