The Challenge of Politics by Douglas W. Simon & Joseph Romance & Neal Riemer

Author:Douglas W. Simon & Joseph Romance & Neal Riemer [Simon, Douglas W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2018-12-27T05:00:00+00:00

This chapter will focus on American politics. As we have noted, the United States is just one of many democracies in the world and in some sense can be seen as just one case study in the broader field of comparative politics. However, it is such an important case study it deserves to be studied on its own. First of all, the United States is arguably the most powerful country on Earth. Its material wealth and military strength make it a political player without parallel. And, even if that changes in the future with the rise of countries like China and India, it is still true today that it is the one indispensable political force that, while it does not control world politics, nonetheless influences politics across the globe. Second, the United States is one of the founding democracies of the modern era. The call for freedom and democracy that started around the time of the American Revolution reverberates to this day. This is not to downplay the significant roles other countries, notably Great Britain and France, played in the ongoing evolution of democracy; yet, we must never lose sight of the fact that modern democracy is fundamentally influenced by the United States, its history and its culture. Finally, the United States deserves study not only for the reasons listed previously—ways in which the United States affects the rest the world—but also because it is in many ways unique and often different from other democracies. The concept of American exceptionalism—the idea that America’s development is different from other countries, that its democracy is not quite like other countries—is important. Paradoxically, the United States deserves to be studied because it is so much like the rest of the world and intertwined with other countries and because it is also so different from the rest of the world.

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