Exceptionalism

Although the idea appears to have developed with respect to an era, today it is particularly applied with respect to particular nations or regions.

Other uses of the term include medical and genetic exceptionalism.

History of the phenomenon

Exceptionalism can be understood as an asymmetrical form of identity construction that functions via a claimed distinction from others (see also: schismogenesis). In the national context it is profoundly linked to nationalism and can legitimize a certain form of foreign policy. As N. Nymalm and J. Plagemann point out, "[e]xceptionalist discourse expresses a peculiar link between a state’s foreign policy and its self-understanding as a unique society or civilization that is related to some form of higher order revelation or spiritual or otherworldly character." The German romantic philosopher-historians, especially Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) and Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814), dwelt on the theme of uniqueness in the late 18th century. They de-emphasized the political state and instead emphasized the uniqueness of the Volk, comprising the whole people, their languages, ethnicity and their traditions. Each nation, considered as a cultural entity with its own distinctive history, possessed a "national spirit", or "soul of the people" (in German: Volksgeist). This idea had a strong influence in the growth of nationalism in 19th-century European lands—especially in ones ruled by élites from somewhere else.

Claims of exceptionality have been made for many countries, including the United States, Australia (especially in South Australia), China, France, Germany, Greece, Pakistan, Imperial Japan, Iran, Italy, Serbia, Israel, North Korea, South Africa, Spain, UK, The Nordic countries, the USSR, Thailand and Lebanon. Historians have added many other cases, including historic empires such as China, the Ottoman Empire, ancient Rome, and ancient India, along with a wide range of minor kingdoms in history. The recurrence of this structure of exceptional ingroup and inferior outgroups can be found across space and time and different contexts (both national and other), so that "when we replace the names, the asymmetrical opposition of Hellenes or Romans to the "barbarians" repeats itself structurally across the epochs. The opposition that may be found in church language of "laos" [Greek for people] versus "ethne" [Greek for gentiles] ("populus" / "plebs" versus "gentes" / "pagani") acquires its sense only because it distinguishes Christians from pagans."

American exceptionalism, a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville in his influential work Democracy in America, describes the belief that the United States is a unique nation tasked to transform the world in its image and it can be traced back to the colonial period. In historiography, the conception that the political development of Germany followed an exceptional path in comparison to other western nations, which in itself constitutes a claim of exceptionality, is debated under the term Sonderweg. The American economist J. Bradford DeLong has used the term "exceptionalism" to describe the economic growth of post-World War II Western Europe.