An Exceptional Civilizing Process?

Abstract

The claim to a nation's `exceptionalism' can only be assessed in relation to a specific theory. This article discusses the history of the USA in the light of Norbert Elias's theory of civilizing (and decivilizing) processes. Although, unlike many Western European countries, the USA never had a single monopoly `model-setting elite' and had no nobility, it did have several competing aristocracies. The Northern Bildungsbürgertum dominates perception of the USA at the expense of the Southern Junkers, whose political and cultural legacy nevertheless continues to be of great significance, notably in the comparatively high level of violence that afflicts present-day America. The peculiarities of state formation processes — the formation of a (relatively) effective monopoly of the legitimate use of violence — in the USA and their continuation in empire formation are examined. Ironically, the USA has become a model-setting elite for the whole world at a time when its popular egalitarianism represents a kind of false consciousness in a factually increasingly unequal society; when the USA may be undergoing a process of de-democratization; and when American misperceptions of the wider world, together with diminishing foresight by American governments, are becoming a serious problem in world politics.