Department
of Political Science
Kuban State University
Fall 1994
COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES ON AMERICAN POLITICAL CULTURE
"There are at the present time two great nations in the world, which started
from different points, but seem to tend towards the same end. I allude to the
Russians and the Americans....The American struggles against the obstacles that
nature opposes to him; the adversaries of the Russian are men. The former combats
the wilderness and savage life; the latter, civilization with all its arms.
The conquests of the American are therefore gained by the plowshare; those of
the Russian by the sword. The Anglo-American relies upon personal interest to
accomplish his ends and gives free scope to the unguided strength and common
sense of the people; the Russian centers all the authority of society in a single
arm. The principal instrument of the former is freedom; of the latter, servitude.
Their starting point is different and their courses are not the same; yet each
of them seems marked out by the will of heaven to sway the destinies of half
the globe."
--Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835.
"The great advantage of the Americans is, that they have arrived at a state
of democracy without having to endure a democratic revolution, and that they
are born equal, instead of becoming so."
--Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835.
Course Description: The great French author Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)
was among the first to try to understand the nature of American politics and
society by comparing it with other nations, both Russia and his native France.
Tocqueville was a pioneer in social science, both because he identified the
importance of different cultural traditions among nations, and because he used
the comparative method to identify how these traditions affect political behavior
and national development. In this course, we will continue in the Tocquevillian
tradition, attempting to identify the constituent features of American political
culture, and engaging in comparisons with Europe and Russia. The course will
begin with a discussion of the settling of the North American continent and
origins and nature of the American Revolution, and will also provide a brief
overview of American history. We will then consider some of Tocqueville's writings,
and assess their historical value and contemporary significance. After this,
we will spend the rest of the semester exploring more recent interpretations
of American political culture. By the end of the course you should have a much
better understanding of the distinctive elements of the American experience,
and of how it differs from that of Russia.
SCHEDULE OF LECTURES AND READINGS
1. The American Revolution And Its Meaning
"The American Revolution," in The Columbia History of the World (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1986), pp. 753-763.
Gordon S. Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution (New York: Vintage
Books, 1991), pp. 3-24; pp. 347-369.
Gordon S. Wood, "Democracy and the American Revolution," in John Dunn, ed. Democracy:
The Unfinished Journey, 508 BC to AD 1993 (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1992), pp. 91-105.
2. Problems of Nation-building And National Identity
Seymour Martin Lipset, The First New Nation (New York: W.W. Norton & Company,
1979), pp. 15-98.
3. An Overview of American Political Culture
Edward S. Greenberg and Benjamin I. Page, The Struggle for Democracy (New York:
Harper Collins College Publishers, 1992), "The American Political Culture,"
pp. 129-138.
4. The Liberal Tradition
Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
1955), pp. 3-23.
5. Tocqueville's Famous Analysis
Selections from Frederick Kershner, Jr., ed., Tocqueville's America: The Great
Quotations (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1983), pp. xiii.-80.
Stuart Miller, Understanding Europeans (Santa Fe, New Mexico: John Muir Publications,
1987), pp. 21-68; 90-116; 144-165; and, 219-231.
James W. Ceaser, Liberal Democracy and Political Science (Baltimore: John Hopkins
University Press, 1990), pp. 26-40; 143- 176.
6. The American Creed
Samuel P. Huntington, American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1981), pp. 13-60.
7. Some Criticisms of Tocqueville, Hartz, and Huntington: What Did They Miss?
Rogers M. Smith, "Beyond Tocqueville, Myrdal, and Hartz: The Multiple Traditions
in America," American Political Science Review (September, 1993), pp. 549-566.
Mark Roelof, The Poverty of American Politics (Philadephia: Temple University
Press, 1992), pp. 1-62.
8. The Nature of American Nationalism
William Pfaff, "American Nationalism," in Pfaff, The Wrath of Nations (New York:
Simon & Schuster, 1993), pp. 161-195.
Liah Greenfield, "In Pursuit of the Ideal Nation: The Unfolding of Nationality
in America," in Liah Greenfield, Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1992), pp. 396-484.
9. Some Comparisons Between Europe and America
Samuel P. Huntington, "Political Modernization: America vs. Europe," in Huntington,
Political Order in Changing Society (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968),
pp. 93-139.
10. Some Comparisons Between Russia and the West
Reinhard Bendix, "Private and Public Authority in Western Europe and Russia,"
in Bendix, Nation-Building and Citizenship (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1977), pp. 175-211.
Marc Raeff, "The People, the Intelligentsia and Russian Political Culture,"
Political Studies (1993), pp. 93-106.