(or not) by the 2016 presidential election. Contributors describe and analyze their countries’ readings of American institutions, problems currently facing the United States, and American democracy; the effects of American domestic politics on their own countries; and the possible consequences that changes in the US presidency could have on the international system.
Examining foreign perceptions of the United States holds special relevance today. In a globalized world, what the United States does or does not do has implications for other nations. The current US president has taken the stance “America First,” which affects US commitments to international trade agreements, climate change agreements, security pacts, international development and humanitarian cooperation, as well as general perceptions of the United States as a world leader. Trump’s statements and policies seem to signal a rejection of the post World War II liberal order that the United States helped to construct. What happens in the United States will have consequences for the rest of the world now as much as ever before.
AMERICAN ELECTIONS: GLOBAL CONSEQUENCES
Why are American elections important to the world? The most straightforward answer to this question points to the US position as a global superpower. In the nineteenth century, the United States began its journey to becoming the dominant world power.12 At the end of World War II the country emerged as the leader of the capitalist world. By the end of the 1980s with the collapse of the socialist block, the international system shifted from one of bipolarity to a unipolarity, giving the United States undisputable primacy in the global sphere.13 Today the United States not only has the largest economy but also the most powerful military force in the world. At the beginning of 2017, the $18.5 Trillion American economy makes up about 24.5 percent of the gross world product in terms of nominal GDP. China occupies a second distant place with its $11.3 trillion economy. Japan holds a distant third place with an economy of $4.73 trillion.14 In 2016, the United States remains the country with the highest level of military expenditures and a military budget of $611 billion, followed by China with $215 billion and Russia in third place with $69.2 billion.15 The United States is also a country with especially advanced technology and a dynamic environment that encourages research and innovation. Overall, the United States is positioned to be, and will be for at least the next few decades, the most powerful country of the world.16
The United States’ international relevance resides not only in its economic and military power, but also in its role as a builder and leader of the post World War II liberal order. From 1945 to the early 1950s, the United States promoted the creations of a number of multilateral institutions to manage global economic, political, military, and strategic relations. This global order facilitated international cooperation and a more integrated world. It was crafted to sustain a worldwide order that favors American interests and values. As John Ikenberry argues,
postwar institutions did not simply solve functional problems or facilitate cooperation; they have also served as mechanism of political control that allowed the leading state, (or at least to some extent) to lock other states into a favorable set of postwar relations and establish some measures of restraint on its own exercise of power, thereby mitigating the fear of domination and abandonment.17
The United States’ position as a founder and dominant force in several international institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was central to its post-Cold War preeminence.
Promotion of American principles and values played a central role in American efforts to sculpt the world in harmony with its interests. Spread of American values created international empathy, facilitated US world leadership—since other countries are in harmony with American ideals and goals—and produced a sort of shield against the general diffusion of anti-American perspectives in most countries around the globe. As Matthias Maass has correctly pointed out, the international interest in American elections is not only related to its preeminence in the international system but also to “what ‘America’ represents ideationally.”18
Certainly, in many countries of the world the United States has been a point of reference or model to follow. Historically, the notion of the American Dream has been the most powerful expression of American values and ideas. It characterizes the United States as the land of freedom, equality, and opportunity where hard work can overcome a difficult start. The American Dream, linked to the values laid out in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, is, according to Holger Stark, “the cement that has until now held together a diverse and fragmented nation.”19 It also has purchase abroad, helping to make the United States an exemplar of the values of liberalism and democracy, equality, respect for human rights, progress and high standards of living, and constitutionalism and the rule of law. The American Dream became a global advertisement for American ideals, aspirations, and lifestyle.20
For decades American politicians, scholars, journalists, and pundits, used the American Dream to shape the world order in the image of American interests and ideals. Americans themselves tend to believe that the ideals expressed in the American Dream are universal and exportable. US national security was long seen as closely tied to the spread of liberal democracy around the world.
At the same time, much of the world has sought to emulate American ideals, institutions, and principles, as well as the economic success for the United States. Many nations have embraced the American Dream as a notion to be emulated, and as a reference point in comparing their politics with those of the United States. As Matthias Maass argues, it “has become a source of inspiration and aspiration across the globe.”21
The American Dream today is not exclusively American, it is international. It cannot be solely American because it assumes much of its meaning when the United States is compared to other nations. People around the world compare their standard of living with that of the United States. In some cases, their living conditions now surpass those of America. Social mobility in the United States slows every single year. Research shows that the United States currently has “record levels of income inequality and lowest rates of actual social mobility among industrial nations.”22 When compared with some Scandinavian countries the situation appears more dramatic. According to a Finnish professor, “40 percent of men who were born into the lowest income bracket [in America] stayed in it. In the Nordic countries that figure is only 25 percent.” For the Finnish journalist Anu Partanen “American is no longer the land of opportunity—northern Europe is.”23 In the view of British Labor Leader Ed Milband, “if you born poor in a more equal society like Finland, Norway, or Denmark then you have a better chance of moving into a good job than if you are born poor in the United States. If you want the American dream—go to Finland.”24
American elections are also opportunities for observers around the world to contrast American ideals and realities, to evaluate whether the myths are supported by evidence, and to assess how much progress their countries have made in relation to the United States. During elections, the US political system and US
