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MyspaceUnderstanding America: The Anatomy of an Exceptional Nation is a 700 page oddity-a book about America, published in the year 2008, that makes almost no mention of American foreign policy, American relations with China, India, and Russia, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, or our anxiety-inducing search for energy security. Instead, it’s dedicated almost entirely to domestic politics and culture-a tome of essays by eminent scholars about the biggest question of all: what makes America different (and, dare we imply it, great)? Recently I spoke with one of the book’s two editors, James Q. Wilson, a professor of public policy at Pepperdine University.
Why does the world need another book in which Americans write about why America is exceptional?
We believe that most Europeans and many Americans do not understand why the United States is an exceptional democracy. By exceptional I don’t necessarily mean better. I mean different or unique. In the final chapter, when [co-editor Peter] Schuck and I summarize all of this, we also say that it is not only exceptional in being different-we also think it’s exceptional in being better.
Why is America a “better” democracy?
We think America is almost the only democracy that has combined three things: remarkable levels of economic growth, productivity, and consumer welfare; a commitment to personal freedom-you can’t be sued here for many things you can be sued for in Europe; and we have done a better job [than European countries] of integrating immigrants into our society.
Well, if those are the linchpins of what makes America better, you’re courting controversy. Let’s start with economics.
The chapter on the economy, written by Benjamin Friedman at Harvard, explains that we have rules that permit a very flexible re-allocation of labor and capital. People can change jobs easily; increasingly their pensions can be carried with them; capital can move from one target to another fairly easily; we don’t have government-directed investments; the regulatory system permits the financial markets to adjust very quickly to change; and all of these things produce a share of gross domestic product that is higher in this country than any other country except places like Luxembourg.
Lax federal regulation of the economy is one of the chief reasons many economists cite for the current sub-prime mortgage crisis and the credit crunch.
James Q. Wilson
We don’t talk about the sub-prime mortgage crisis-that developed after the book was written. But speaking for myself, hardly anyone fully understands the sub-prime mortgage crisis, but there’s as yet no reason to think this crisis can’t be handled by the market:
There’s a big rift in the Republican Party right now on immigration. It’s a significant problem for John McCain that he’s seen as too pro-immigration by many rank and file Republicans-the same is true for President Bush.
In the chapter on immigration, Peter Shuck cites a great deal of data about this. Most Americans do not want the number of immigrants in the country to increase. The great majority of Americans think that [illegal] Latino immigrants who are here should be put on a path to citizenship. The two things Americans don’t like are the word “amnesty”, and having an uncontrolled southern border. So if we can control the southern border, and if we can avoid using the word amnesty and instead say, “Let’s put people on a path to citizenship by requiring them to pass certain tests,” I think the American people would be quite happy with that.
You make it sound like Americans are eminently reasonable about immigration, so why is McCain, who seems pretty reasonable to me, vilified?
McCain’s controversial partly because certain persons, Lou Dobbs among them, have hurled around the word “amnesty,” or “exporting jobs,” when in fact these words don’t have any meaning.
So you think McCain’s views are essentially aligned with most Americans?
They’re very close to what most Americans want.
411: James Q. Wilson will speak at UCSB’s Campbell Hall on Monday, May 5th at 8pm. This lecture is free to the public, and books will be available for purchase and signing. For more information, call 893-3535 or visit artsandlectures.ucsb.edu.
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Here is a quick reference to the subject of the above article : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Q....
While I agree with certain opinions to which Wilson holds, I disagree with him on others.
Tens of millions of Americans are worrying day and night about health care. Millions are homeless. We are so far into debt it isn't even funny. We are gradually losing our freedoms through actions by politicians of both parties--however well-intended. The American Dream of home ownership in much of California is just that--a dream--for working-class people. I have a feeling that through a combination of hard work and LUCK Wilson doesn't suffer the afflictions mentioned above.
As for his pro-business support of the open border, I would remind him and his supporters that one of the truly great things about America are the labor standards achieved by those brave people who back in the early 1900's bucked the system and effected safe work conditions which set us apart from much of the world. When President Bush comes on T.V. and says "They (illegal immigrants) do the work Americans won't do" what he means is that they will work in unsafe and unreasonable conditions that no one should have to face. This support of the unlimited cheap labor enterprise is undoing the progress achieved by those who fought so hard to achieve workers rights, and people on both sides of the political aisle need to realize this as they support the "guest worker" farce. (How does Japan do so well without imported cheap labor?) Such a stance hurts people on BOTH sides of our southern border.
Also, I doubt if Mssrs. George "Beware of Foreign entanglements" Washington, Adams, Jefferson and so on, would look kindly upon our foreign interventionist policy.
Upholding American traditions of freedom and high living standards includes more than simply supporting a given political party and waving the American flag.
billclausen (anonymous profile)
April 24, 2008 at 3:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
This article made me throw up a little bit.
blackmagic805 (anonymous profile)
April 25, 2008 at 8:56 a.m. (Suggest removal)
How much better things would be for people in both countries if Mexico's government would realize its country's economic potential--something that will not happen if the U.S. continues to be its safety valve.
What a paradox that with so much of the American public against the open border, these same people of put in the top three positions of the presidential race candidates who have never stood up to the flagrant violation of our immigration laws all the while talking about how much they care about all of us.
In other words, the voters blew another opportunity, but as Brittanicus points out, there are other courses of action to be taken.
I just hope when this thing truly hits critical mass that the American people direct their anger at the politicians who sold them out by voting them out or even recalling them from office and not direct their anger at the people crossing the border.
This alliance of Big Business and Fifth Columnists in the U.S. enabling the Mexican governments' desire to export its disenfranchised, discontented masses won't stop until the American voters demand it.
billclausen (anonymous profile)
April 26, 2008 at 2:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)
If America's democracy is so wonderful and so committed to personal freedom, how did we end up with a regime committed to secret indefinite detention and torture?
On economics, the notion that the mortgage crisis is beyond understanding but can be "handled by the market" is delusional nonsense.
His overall claims are so bizarrely out of touch with the actual world that only someone with a stunning degree of ideological blindness could make them.
And I guess he doesn't realize how wonderfully stupid this is: "By exceptional I don't necessarily mean better... In the final chapter, ... we also think it's exceptional in being better."
pkoplin (anonymous profile)
May 2, 2008 at 11:09 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Woohoo, just in time for economic crisis, we have: Dogmatic nationalism! Now we just need some tough-talking, charismatic anti-semite to recreate the ol' German show of yesteryear, right here in the US of A. Fascism is easy, kids!
Wrench (anonymous profile)
May 5, 2008 at 3:21 p.m. (Suggest removal)