Mugambi Jouet - American Exceptionalism in a Changing Western World
Mugambi Jouet will lead an informal discussion on “American Exceptionalism in a Changing Western World”.ĚýCakes and coffee will be served.
Abstract of American Exceptionalism in a Changing Western World by Mugambi Jouet
References to “American exceptionalism” and the “West” are omnipresent in public debate, media coverage, and academic scholarship. Exploring their overlooked interrelationship can shed light on each concept, its history, and major developments in our age.
The Western world is the primary benchmark of American exceptionalism in the original sense of the phrase that America is an “exception.” Comparatists often assess whether America is an outlier among Western democracies on issues like abortion, the death penalty, mass incarceration, guns, universal health care, wealth inequality, foreign policy, hyper-polarization, and the rise of populist authoritarianism. Scholars can have legitimate methodological reasons to compare the United States to peer Western nations given their shared democratic forms of government, industrialized economies, and roots in Western civilization.
However, the “West” is a malleable concept that should both be theorized and critically analyzed, as its boundaries have changed over centuries. My transnational history concludes that the modern Western world encompasses the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and European nations, except Russia and European states aligned with Russia, such as Belarus. It was not always so. Within Europe, the West has gradually moved eastward, especially since the reunification of Germany and the Westernization of numerous former Soviet bloc countries. The demarcation of “Western” and “non-Western” countries has also involved Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania, intersecting with questions of colonialism and race. Patterns of inclusion and exclusion from the West additionally exist within Western societies, as illustrated by the predicament of Indigenous peoples in settler colonies and the history of African Americans involved on the Western side during the Cold War. My research further sheds light on neglected aspects of decolonization that saw Canada, Australia, and New Zealand evolve from being “self-governing colonies” of the British Empire to sovereign countries and core parts of the modern Western bloc—a process influenced by the status of Quebec. Even though the term “Western” has at times been racialized, a fuller history suggests that it should not be simply equated with “European” or “white.” Nor is the “West” fundamentally a geographic area, as it is a social and geopolitical construct that has evolved over time.
In our age, the reelection of Donald Trump could reinforce American exceptionalism and reshape the Western bloc as we know it. Not only could the world’s most powerful country shift from being a “Western democracy” to a “Western illiberal democracy,” it risks dismantling the Western bloc by pursuing a rapprochement with Vladimir Putin’s Russia, withdrawing from NATO (de jure or de facto), and antagonizing longstanding allies, including Canada, Denmark, and the European Union. Beyond the United States, the rest of the West likewise faces mounting challenges from China, Russia, and movements toward authoritarianism from within. By connecting the dots between critical questions, this transnational history will enhance the understanding of “American exceptionalism” and the “West”—key concepts in many areas of academic research and social debate around the world.
Please RSVP at :Â caroline.homet [at] mail.mcgill.ca.Ěý
