American Difference

A Guide to American Politics in Comparative Perspective

Lori M. Poloni-Staudinger, Michael R. Wolf

• Publisher: CQ Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781544325347
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: American Government
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Examining democracies from a comparative perspective helps us better understand why politics—or, as Harold Lasswell famously said, "who gets what, when, and how"—differ among democracies. American Difference: A Guide to American Politics in Comparative Perspective takes the reader through different aspects of democracy—political culture, institutions, interest groups, political parties, and elections—and, unlike other works, explores how the United States is both different from and similar to other democracies. The fully updated Second Edition has been expanded to include several new chapters and discussion on civil liberties and civil rights, constitutional arrangements, elections and electoral institutions, and electoral behavior. This edition also includes data around the 2016 general election and 2018 midterm election.

Chapter One American Politics From a Comparative Perspective

You have probably all heard the phrase “of the people and for the people” when hearing about democratic government, but what does that mean? Why in the United States does “of the people and for the people” equal three branches of government and a U.S. president who generally stays in office for a full term no matter his popularity, but in the United Kingdom it can mean early elections and leaders yanked off the stage when public opinion sways against them? Does democratic government mean the individual with the most votes wins like we see in the United States, or does it signify power sharing and compromise like we see in Italy or Germany? Do other democracies have an electoral college? When Americans hear the word democracy they likely think of the president, separation of powers, a winner-take-all election system, and checks and balances. When other countries’ citizens hear the word democracy, they probably think of parliaments, proportional representation, and coalition formation. Why would the word democracy bring one set of ideas to mind for Americans and yet conjure up an entirely different set of ideas for people living in other democracies? Exploring American politics from a comparative perspective helps to explain why Americans view the meaning and practice of politics differently from other democratic citizens around the world. In 1936, Harold Lasswell famously said that politics is about “who gets what, when and how.”¹ We know, however, that not every government looks the same, and even governments that we group together as democracies do not look the same. Why are they different? If politics really is about “who gets what, when and how,” examining democracies from a comparative perspective helps us to better understand why who gets what, when, and how it is similar or different in the United States as compared to other democracies.

What Does It Mean to Examine American Politics from a Comparative Perspective?

American students can often see their friends change over the years in class pictures—from pigtails in elementary school, to awkward middle school years, to the contemplative senior portrait. For those who do not move, students go to school together for over a decade because the United States typically has a common curriculum from kindergarten through twelfth grade. This means, that for the most part, American kids receive a universal education, with everyone pretty much having the same sort of curriculum in one school building. While there may be tracks within schools, and some kids take AP classes while others don’t, you generally see your friends in gym and at lunch and take other classes like sex ed or health all together. Everyone who goes to high school in Bad Axe, Michigan, for example, goes to a universal high school. In other countries, education works differently. In Germany or Austria, kids enter different educational tracks after fifth grade. Teachers, in consultation with parents, recommend kids enter either a college preparatory, technical, or mid-level and lower-level vocational educational track.² It is hard to imagine a fifth-grade teacher having as much influence in the United States as to where a parent would send a kid for middle school. Why?

The answer lies in part with the American belief in individualism, or the idea of favoring individual freedom of action over collective or state control, as well as the well-developed social welfare system in other countries. In the United States, parents would likely be suspicious of a public official having so much control over determining a child’s educational future. Most Americans would also favor allowing the individual child the opportunity to work hard and succeed rather than predetermining the child’s educational attainment. Further, Germans, Austrians, and citizens in other democracies believe more in looking out for the entire society more than individuals, meaning that skilled and unskilled laborers are relatively well paid, with job security, paid vacation, universal health care, and promises of state-funded retirement. So a plumber and a surgeon share common work benefits, making any pressure to attend college less strong in some social democracies than it is in the United States. What is the result? The more collective views of Germans and individualist views of Americans lead to dissimilar acceptance of authority over the individual, which leads to enormous differences on policies such as education, social services, and labor. In short, citizens expect and accept very different things from their governments.

Gun control provides a poignant example of how these differential expectations play out in real policy debates. In March 1996, a gunman armed with four handguns entered Dunblane Primary School in Dunblane, Scotland. He killed sixteen children and one adult before taking his own life. Less than a year later, the British Parliament decisively passed a law banning private ownership of nearly all guns, which is still in effect today and maintains high levels of public support. In December 2012, a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, killing twenty children and six adults, before taking his own life. In the months that followed, the country remained divided about the best course of action regarding gun control. Congress did not pass any comprehensive legislation; government action came solely in the form of executive orders, not through legislative action; and no substantive changes were made regarding gun ownership in the United States. In fact, there have been almost 300 school shootings since Sandy Hook! Why do we see the stark difference between responses to similar shootings in the United Kingdom and United States? The answers lie in part with differences in political culture and democratic governmental structure in the United States compared with the culture and democratic structures in the United Kingdom. The emphasis on individual liberties and the difficulty of changing public policy meant that the American response led to more debate over principles than action, whereas the more collectivist views in the United Kingdom and ease of changing policy led to dramatic policy change.

Comparative politics is a subfield of political science just like American politics is a subfield of political science. Yet, while American politics is focused on understanding the political culture, behavior, and institutions in the United States, comparative politics is focused on analyzing and comparing political culture, behavior, and institutions across political systems. Thus, Americanists, or political scientists who specialize in American politics, examine how politics works under American democracy. Comparativists, or political scientists who specialize in comparative politics, may look at the way in which different democracies behave in different situations, understanding that there are many democracies around the world and that they do not all look the same. To explore American politics from a comparative perspective, then, means asking how politics in the United States is similar to and different from politics in other advanced industrial democracies. For example, why do we see differences in such areas as education, social services, gun control, and fiscal policies, yet we see similarities in terms of competitive party systems, values of freedom, and high levels of economic growth? The United States shares many foundational democratic characteristics with other advanced industrial democracies. We discuss these similarities in Chapter 2. However, the United States also differs from other democracies in terms of political culture, institutions, and political parties and elections, themes explored throughout the book.

Is American Democracy the Best Type of Democracy?

The position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one…. Let us cease, then, to view all democratic nations under the example of the American people.³

American exceptionalism is sometimes used to express the idea that the United States is unique among and superior to other countries. By extension, proponents of American exceptionalism argue that American-styled democracy is the “best” form of government. Alexis de Tocqueville (quoted above) held to the idea that not only is the United States different, but its difference has allowed it to develop the best way to organize a government. You may have heard of the idea that the United States is a “City on a Hill.” This language, emanating from the New Testament, has been used throughout history to refer to the uniqueness, and some believed exceptional nature, of the United States. John Winthrop in 1690 told the Massachusetts Bay colonists that their community would be a “city upon a hill” and watched by the world. This religious-like approach to America’s uniqueness gave rise to the belief that the United States is a special and blessed country and a Shining City upon a Hill, like that discussed in the Bible. In subsequent years, politicians like John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan returned to the City on the Hill metaphor to bring to mind America’s uniqueness and superiority as a beacon of hope for the world.

In other usage, however, American exceptionalism simply means that the United States is different, not better than other countries. Other countries, too, believe that they are an example for the world to follow. In Chapter 3, we explore these varied meanings of American exceptionalism, favoring the idea of looking at how American democracy stacks up against other advanced industrial democracies on objective measures rather than suggesting that American democracy is a better type of democracy. Thus, these authors, while each proud Americans, do not ascribe to the idea that the United States would be the “best” democracy to be emulated the world over. Instead, exceptionalism is an analytical angle with great leverage to explain strengths and quirks in American politics that might otherwise be dismissed as normal or maybe not even be noticed. As we travel through this book, we hope that students read with an eye to understanding why the United States is unique and the best type of democracy for the American system but not objectively superior in context than other forms of democracy around the world.

In fact, many scholars of American politics have criticized the narrowness of American political beliefs compared to other democracies. While Tocqueville admired American democracy as noted above, he also said,

I know of no country in which, speaking generally, there is less independence of mind and true freedom of discussion than in America…. In America the majority has enclosed thought within a formidable fence. A writer is free inside that area, but woe to the man who goes beyond it.⁴

The uniformity of thought and embrace of individualism leaves Americans feeling threatened by other political beliefs, even if they are modest and democratic. Louis Hartz argued that Americans’ “irrational” devotion to “Americanism” and limited government leads Americans to overreact to other ideologies. This explains why the hysteria that some Americans held socialist thoughts led to the red scare in the 1950s, where some Americans’ civil liberties and civil rights were bulldozed out of fear that communism would spread.⁵ Due to this uniformity of thought, Americans do not recognize other ideological beliefs, and modest social welfare spending gets called “socialism” even while it is small relative to any other democracy. Other scholars say that this adherence to limited government and skepticism toward government progressivism leaves the American system unable and unwilling to deal with pressing issues until there is a crisis—like the Civil War or the Great Depression—when the government has no other choice but to act.⁶

Despite these critiques, American democracy may in fact be the best type of democracy for the United States given the uniqueness of its notions of social contract and political culture; other democracies based upon other notions of social contract and culture have found ways of organizing better suited to their own circumstances. For the sake of analysis, this theme of exceptionalism meaning the difference of American government rather than superiority of American government will be a theme for inquiry that we carry throughout the book. It is also important to recognize, however, that the United States shares much in common with other advanced industrial democracies. In fact, the United States may not be as dissimilar from other democracies as de Tocqueville or Winthrop thought. Broad commonalities shared as democracies will be explored in Chapter 2. Throughout the book, then, we point out both the similarities and differences between the United States and other democracies as we explore American politics from a comparative perspective.

Why Is It Important to Examine American Politics from a Comparative Perspective?

Public policy is not made from a common viewpoint across democracies. In other words, the policy priorities that a country has are influenced by the political culture and institutions (i.e., parties, elections, electoral law, voting behavior) unique to each country. Often we become trapped in our own conceptions of what is appropriate for public policy challenges, institutions, and appropriate political behavior. Examining American politics from a comparative perspective will allow us to “unpack” some of these preconceptions and better understand American politics by studying how other democracies face challenges and do politics. For example, when a person puts on green-colored glasses, they see their environment as green but cannot detect the color of anything that is green. When another person looks at the same environment through purple colored glasses, the same happens with the color purple. In a sense, Americans are socialized into their political worldview as if the United States had put on a pair of green glasses. The political world is tinted from their established viewpoint. Let’s say Italy’s glasses are purple, and they see the same environment but in purple. While it is natural to have such a worldview and tint based on their particular experiences, Americans cannot distinguish what is green, and Italians cannot discriminate what is purple. These become almost blind spots because of their tinted view. Viewing the environment through another set of glasses can help Americans see the blind spots they would not see otherwise.

Why are American politics different? Differences in political history and political culture have led to differences in institutional preferences, manifested in differences in voting behavior. In short, culture and institutions have intermingled to have long-standing influence on the policy preferences and voting behavior of publics in advanced industrial democracies. American democracy is one form of democracy, and when examined comparatively, one learns how American democracy is a unique form of government because culture and institutions have blended in a different way in the United States than they have in other countries. When readers examine each component of American political life comparatively, they will better understand how American democracy is a distinctive form of government and how other democracies function successfully, albeit differently, and readers will more fully understand American politics.

Before we focus on the differences between democratic government practiced in the United States as compared to other countries, we must first understand what these countries have in common. The United States is not the world’s only democracy. So what is it that makes a democracy a democracy? Are there common c...