Power, Individualism, and Collective Self Perception in the USA
Journal: Social Science Open Access Repository (GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences)
Year: 2020

The thesis of this paper is that the key element in the shaping of the habitus of Americans has been their very long-term, virtually unbroken, experience of their country becoming more and more powerful vis-à-vis its neighbours. An increasing sense of their own powerfulness is related to the “individualism” that has so often been discussed as a key characteristic of the American “national character.” The long-term process of habitus formation has had important consequences for the role of the US