Dream On, America - The "American Model" Loses Favor - MUST READ

[liberalpragmatist]

From Newsweek International. I don't think it's even being published in the US edition (though I could be wrong).

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6857387/site/newsweek/

Dream On America

The U.S. Model: For years, much of the world did aspire to the American way of life. But today countries are finding more appealing systems in their own backyards.

By Andrew Moravcsik

Jan. 31 issue - Not long ago, the American dream was a global fantasy. Not only Americans saw themselves as a beacon unto nations. So did much of the rest of the world. East Europeans tuned into Radio Free Europe. Chinese students erected a replica of the Statue of Liberty in Tiananmen Square.

You had only to listen to George W. Bush's Inaugural Address last week (invoking "freedom" and "liberty" 49 times) to appreciate just how deeply Americans still believe in this founding myth. For many in the world, the president's rhetoric confirmed their worst fears of an imperial America relentlessly pursuing its narrow national interests. But the greater danger may be a delusional America—one that believes, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the American Dream lives on, that America remains a model for the world, one whose mission is to spread the word.

<snip>

The truth is that Americans are living in a dream world. Not only do others not share America's self-regard, they no longer aspire to emulate the country's social and economic achievements. The loss of faith in the American Dream goes beyond this swaggering administration and its war in Iraq. A President Kerry would have had to confront a similar disaffection, for it grows from the success of something America holds dear: the spread of democracy, free markets and international institutions—globalization, in a word.

Countries today have dozens of political, economic and social models to choose from. Anti-Americanism is especially virulent in Europe and Latin America, where countries have established their own distinctive ways—none made in America. Futurologist Jeremy Rifkin, in his recent book "The European Dream," hails an emerging European Union based on generous social welfare, cultural diversity and respect for international law—a model that's caught on quickly across the former nations of Eastern Europe and the Baltics. In Asia, the rise of autocratic capitalism in China or Singapore is as much a "model" for development as America's scandal-ridden corporate culture. "First we emulate," one Chinese businessman recently told the board of one U.S. multinational, "then we overtake."

<snip>

Much in American law and society troubles the world these days. Nearly all countries reject the United States' right to bear arms as a quirky and dangerous anachronism. They abhor the death penalty and demand broader privacy protections. Above all, once most foreign systems reach a reasonable level of affluence, they follow the Europeans in treating the provision of adequate social welfare is a basic right. All this, says Bruce Ackerman at Yale University Law School, contributes to the growing sense that American law, once the world standard, has become "provincial." The United States' refusal to apply the Geneva Conventions to certain terrorist suspects, to ratify global human-rights treaties such as the innocuous Convention on the Rights of the Child or to endorse the International Criminal Court (coupled with the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo) only reinforces the conviction that America's Constitution and legal system are out of step with the rest of the world.

<snip>

Much has made, for instance, of the differences between the dynamic American model and the purportedly sluggish and overregulated "European model." Ongoing efforts at European labor-market reform and fiscal cuts are ridiculed. Why can't these countries be more like Britain, businessmen ask, without the high tax burden, state regulation and restrictions on management that plague Continental economies? Sooner or later, the CW goes, Europeans will adopt the American model—or perish.

Yet this is a myth. For much of the postwar period Europe and Japan enjoyed higher growth rates than America. Airbus recently overtook Boeing in sales of commercial aircraft, and the EU recently surpassed America as China's top trading partner. This year's ranking of the world's most competitive economies by the World Economic Forum awarded five of the top 10 slots—including No. 1 Finland—to northern European social democracies. "Nordic social democracy remains robust," writes Anthony Giddens, former head of the London School of Economics and a "New Labour" theorist, in a recent issue of the New Statesman, "not because it has resisted reform, but because it embraced it."

***

Read the whole thing. It's good and there are so many great passages that you should read.

[papau]

1. I agree with the points in the article- But corp. media "boosterism" means

The is will not see the light of day in main stream US media.

[eg101]

11. this is Newsweek -- it IS MSM

Of course, "moderate", "centrist", and "pragmatic" Democrats are as much opposed to this European model as are the GOP, right?

[tom_paine]

33. Bullshit. This will only be seen in the Free World, not Amerika

This is the Newsweek that is allowed to be viewed only by the Free World.

And no, it is almost a 100% certainty this will not be published in Imperial Amerikan Newsweek that the Imperial Subjects of Amerika get to see.

In fact, it wasn't in this week's issue.

perhaps next weeks, eh?

And if you believe that I have some Diebold "Voting" machines to sell you.

[HamiltonHabs32]

43. Same Article

with interactive clicky goodness.

Check it out

[Freedom_from_Chains]

38. Yes America was once a great nation

Until it became deluded with it's egotistical pride and came to beleive it could do no wrong. Now it is starting to be seen by the rest of the world as a mad dog that needs to be contained and eventually destroyed.

[Mojambo]

2. Terrific piece

I'm sending it to everyone I know.

Thanks!

[louis-t]

3. I think the biggest reason for decline of the 'American Model'

is we used to 'lead by example' and the rest of the world respected that. These days we lead by bullying, lying, torturing, and proselytizing. bush has almost single-handedly caused this to happen.

[Mojambo]

5. I call it "Capitalism gone wild"

Bad things happen when you have the kind of economic gap we have in this country.

[Nite Owl]

4. That was an excellent

article.

[The Traveler]

6. America is falling behind

And that is the issue ... should have been THE issue of the campaign. We are falling behind in part because we expend our strength foolishly, like in wars conducted to spread at gunpoint our vision of democracy to the rest of the world. We are falling behind because we prefer ignorance and arrogance to knowledge and tolerance.

This article makes it clear ... the American Dream has been transformed to the American Nightmare, and the Land of the Free is being rigged up to become a vast concentration camp of the soul.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[shrike]

12. So you want what?

Lower taxes, larger class sizes and lower salaries?

Yeah, that'll fix things.

[Selatius]

15. Your strawman is pretty disingenuous

What he's saying is that if we're going to raise pay for teachers, we ought to also look at increasing educational standards, alloting more money for student financial aid programs, trying to cut down on red tape, etc. The way we're going about this in this country is not the way to do things, and it hasn't been so for the last 30 years under both Democratic and Republican administrations.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

22. You actually think teachers are in control of educational policy?

In what universe?

Teachers have to follow the dictates of state legislatures, school boards, and ass-covering administrators. The ones I know complain about having to do so much paperwork and meet stupid bureaucratic requirements that it interferes with their teaching.

I was never a public school teacher, but I did teach on the college level, and I know from experience that large class sizes work against educational achievement because 1) The students feel anonymous and act accordingly, both in the sense of withdrawing from participation and in the sense of trying to get away with cheating and other misbehavior, 2) It's hard to keep track of each individual's progress. In a small class, I knew exactly how every student was doing. In a large class, their faces and personalities all blended into one another.

By the way, "the Democrats are dominated by unions" is a right-wing talking point.

[shrike]

25. What strawman?

That post made no sense to me. From the sounds of things, he wants to lower taxes, which will do -- what?

[Strelnikov_]

21. The Democrats Have Had Total Power Up To Now? What Have I Missed?

The GOP has had the presidency for 16 out of the last 24 years, and both houses of Congress for the last 10.

I see it as an incitement of libertarian concepts, along with the GOP greed based, grab what you can, philosophy of governance.

From the article:

“The inspiration, says Giddens, comes not from America, but from social-democratic Sweden, where universal child care, education and health care have been proved to increase social mobility, opportunity and, ultimately, economic productivity.”

“Cross-national studies show that America has recently become a relatively difficult country for poorer people to get ahead. Monbiot summarizes the scientific data: "In Sweden, you are three times more likely to rise out of the economic class into which you were born than you are in the U.S."

I may be wrong, but the impression I get is that the answer may be more social support systems and safety nets, a core Progressive belief. I fail to see how the GOP goals of creating a permanent oligarch class by only taxing wages, elimination of all regulation, elimination of the remainder of the social safety nets from the Great Society, eliminating any semblance of equal educational opportunity, achieves the ‘Sweden’ model.

And if Sweden had the same socioeconomic problems that inner-city schools have in the United States (poverty, crime, unequal funding), they would also have underperforming schools.

[aneerkoinos]

24. Inner city problems

From late 50's Sweden, because of immigration, has undergone huge demographic change and become a multicultural society, which has naturally created lot's of socioeconomic problems and racism. But they do not share similar socioeconomic problems to US. Why is that?

What created the inner-city problem in US? Answer seems to be quite simply, racism and lack of social regulation and planning in housing. White middle class didn't want to share neighbourhood with blacks so they moved to suburbia, society believing in individualism allowed centrifugal processes to take place instead of working towards cohesion. Whereas in Sweden the process has been heavily regulated by social planning, bureaucrats with background of sociological academic studies, who have made mistakes, sometimes horrible, but the system is not fatally broken, empirical feed back about causes and effects really affect actual planning and mistakes can be and sometimes are corrected
.

[Strelnikov_]

28. Hey, No More Moe

Bye Moe

[berry]

8. I just read this article--sent to me by my sister--and was going to post

it here. I should have known DU would have it up already! Luckily, I searched for it before posting a dupe. This is a must-read, and yet it does seem that Newsweek isn't putting it in the domestic version for the very people who most need to understand what it is telling us.

So, this is a :kick: for an article that deserves to be widely circulated!

[liberalpragmatist]

14. At least they're putting in Fareed Zakaria's piece

Which is also excellent - while I disagree with some of the things Fareed Zakaria writes, his understanding of the global psyche is fantastic and his writing is extremely clear. He also wrote a fantastic piece for Newsweek and luckily, at least that one is included in the US edition.

You can read Zakaria's piece here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6857303/site/newsweek/

It appears that these two articles are actually a pairing of articles that make up the cover for the international edition of Newsweek.

Look what they get overseas:


Look what WE get:

[confuddled]

27. The different covers are telling.

They tell me that, as a country, 'we get' what we ask for. I suspect that much of the country is more interested in which rising star is going to get an Oscar than the unpalatable fact that America is a falling star - due largely to its 'values', if you'll pardon the use of the word. A magazine publisher's decision as to which content to present in which edition is a 'no brainer'. That decision is not conducive to this country's recognition of its state of decay, but it is 'reality' based - a tragic reality which serves to accelerate the downward spiral of the country's demise.

[eg101]

9. wow! Now, THIS is what the Left should be doing more of ...

....instead of farting around, wasting our energy on obsessing over politicians and cult of personality and political campaigns and demonstrations and protest, and similar shit, we should be funding organizations to crank out articles like this one, and getting them published in the mass media. If we could just do that, not only would the Democrats win the Prez, the Senate and the House in 08, but the winners would be REAL democrats instead of DINOs, and even the Republicans would be running to the Left.

[shrike]

13. I respectfully disagree

Demonstrations and protests are quite effective. Civil rights, labor unions and women's suffrage did not come about because people published articles. Not that articles are bad -- but people also put their bodies on the line for the sake of change.

[gorbal]

18. You have to take the media into consideration

Protest lately is more effective in it's effect on other countries, the ones in which the media portray protestors in a fair and unbiased light. This does in a roundabout way effect the US with international pressure, but internally we should work on supporting a more fair and balanced media so that protest will be more effective.

If you don't know what I mean, watch "Democarcy Now's" portrayal of last weeks prostests, then compare it with CNN or other news networks.

[shrike]

26. That's a good point

However, Vietnam protestors were extremely unpopular (and in some quarters, still are) and eventually they made their point.

While your point about media change is well-taken, I still believe it behooves us to show ourselves in numbers.

[eg101]

10. this is almost a LANDMARK article

this may be the FIRST time an elite media outlet has made the case for the european social democracy in such convincing detail. Now we just need more and more and more of these sorts of articles....

[Demeter]

16. First Impose Democracy With A Bayonet, Then Export Freedom

like obsolete VCRs, since nobody's buying it here!

[Selatius]

17. Bush's presidency is the zenith of trends that have been going on for yrs.

For the last half of the 20th century the US government has repeatedly attacked indirectly or directly other nations using the excuse of fighting communism in order to provide cover for its corporatized foreign policy that demands access to resources, control over foreign markets, and subjugation of foreign governments to US power. This is for the American business interests that have heavy influence in government.

It happened with both Democrats and Republicans in power through various points in history. The Democratic score on this is, in my honest opinion, just as bad as the Republicans. The Bush Presidency is merely the crest of a wave that's been building for decades.

Our government has harmed and inflicted misery on millions throughout the world for 50 years. Now payment is due in blood, and the cost is the next 50 years being the declining years for the US. This is a systemic failure of the system. The price of freedom is truly eternal vigilance, and we have allowed ourselves to be deceived and manipulated into giving up our independence to corporate power.

As far as the whole planet is concerned, it seems in their eyes we have fundamentally failed.

[Dirk39]

19. I agree with most of what you write, but...

Hello from Germany!

You write "For the last half of the 20th century the US government has repeatedly attacked indirectly or directly other nations using the excuse of fighting communism..."

But this excuse doesn't work anymore. They now have to directly attack the welfare-systems and the gainings of the labour-movement in Europe. And they're doing it.
There was an intersting article posted at DU a few days, interesting esp. as a contrast to the above posted article:

"Sun 16 Jan 2005
CIA gives grim warning on European prospects

NICHOLAS CHRISTIAN


THE CIA has predicted that the European Union will break-up within 15 years unless it radically reforms its ailing welfare systems (...)"

DU Thread

This demagogy might not work as good as the before-used "Every kind of social justice leads to Stalin and Gulags".

Even Bush had to repeat over and over again (esp. at his first inaugural speech in 2000) that everybody has a chance in the U.S.A.
It might be easier to counteract this ideology as it was before.

Although I have to admit that I don't share the illusions many Northamericans seem to have about Europe. The welfare system is under full attack, nearly all European countries - Sweden is still an exception - undergo Thatcher-like reforms. But it seems that there's much more resistance here, esp. in France and Italy.

Dirk

[bklyncowgirl]

23. An excellent article, thought provoking and in the end tragic

This should be a must read for those who call anyone who makes the mildest criticism of American policy, "America Haters"

Sadly, I doubt most Americans will ever read this. We are so stuck in our little world convinced that we are still the envy of the universe.

[Boomer]

29. Don't miss this excellent supporting article...

No. 1?
BY MICHAEL VENTURA

No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the USA is "No. 1," "the greatest." Our broadcast media are, in essence, continuous advertisements for the brand name "America Is No. 1." Any office seeker saying otherwise would be committing political suicide. In fact, anyone saying otherwise will be labeled "un-American." We're an "empire," ain't we? Sure we are. An empire without a manufacturing base. An empire that must borrow $2 billion a day from its competitors in order to function. Yet the delusion is ineradicable. We're No. 1. Well ... this is the country you really live in:

• The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (The New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).

• The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

• One-third of our science teachers and one-half of our math teachers did not major in those subjects. (Quoted on The West Wing, but you can trust it – their researchers are legendary.)

<snip>

No. 1? In most important categories we're not even in the Top 10 anymore. Not even close.

The USA is "No. 1" in nothing but weaponry, consumer spending, debt, and delusion.

---

The full article can be found at:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2005-01-21/cols_ventura.html

The DU discussion at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=100255

[RedEarth]

37. Excellent article....really an eye-opener......thanks for the post

[Blue_Tires]

30. the link is broken

and i can't find the whole story!!!! did anyone save it?

[liberalpragmatist]

34. Here's a new link

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6857387/site/newsweek/

[GetTheRightVote]

31. We have lost so much in the world due to * & his posse of lies

:kick:

[Monkie]

35. its not bush!only with bush its out in the open...

if you lived in africa/middle-east/asia/south-america this would have been your reality since the 1950's and before..
ask them if they believe in the american dream
thats part of the point of this article, its always been a myth

*kick* ;)

[tom_paine]

32. There is NO WAY in HELL this anti-Fatherland piece will ever see the light

of day in Imperial Amerika.

Socialist piffle, right? Or as the Bushevik Forebears who institutted a more violent & overtly racist plan in 1930s Germany would say,

"Jewish Propaganda"

Actually, a Bushevik would say "Liberal Propaganda" which is not only the Nazi's SECOND choice of words, but also shows that Right-Wing Automatons remain constant throughout history, really.

Thank God ours are Kinder and Gentler...for the moment.

[redqueen]

36. I understand the Philippines and India... but Poland?

"Only Poland, the Philippines and India viewed Bush's second Inaugural positively."

Why would they view his inaugural positively?

[liberalpragmatist]

41. In India at least most people are pretty neutral towards the US

The poor don't care - they're worried about their own food. And the middle-class and the upper-class is so linked to the US through family and consumerism that they are very pro-US and tend to be pro-US no matter who's in power. They loved Clinton as well. And while they overwhelmingly disagree with Iraq, it's not an issue they're all that concerned with. They also tend to see Bush more as a moron, rather than a danger to them. That explains his relatively high approval ratings in India.

As for Poland - it's always been the most pro-American Eastern European country and in many ways one of the more conservative ones.

[redqueen]

42. Thank you

I did not know that about Poland... appreciate the info.

[kris10ep]

39. Blinded

"Blinded by its own myth, America has grown incapable of recognizing its flaws."

This is one of the things that scares me most about W. - his inability to accept his mistakes. That unyielding faith and certainty that he knows what is right and his is the only answer.

Alexander Pope said “A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.”

The prez should contemplate those words for a while.

GREAT article....thanks for posting it.

[BrklynLiberal]

40. Great article. Thanks for posting. I am sharing with everyone I know..