"America and Europe: A Clashof (Democratic) Civilizations?"

This paper discusses the growing divide between the United States and Europe, using differences in political culture as the principal explanatory factor. Drawing upon Geroge Sabine's 1952 article, "The Two Democratic Traditions", the paper argues that the US is rooted in a Classical Liberal Tradition, and that this informs both foreign and domestic US policy. The European tradition -- and the Norwegian tradition receives the greatest focus here -- is rooted much more in a egalitarian democratic tradition with a much more activist state. Both Europeans and Americans tend to favor international insitutions that reflect these standpoints, with Europeans seeking a relatively larger role for organziations such as the UN and the US favoring a more anarchic, self-help system. The paper then explores the US domestic political debate between "liberals" and "neocons", arguing that eagerness with which neocons have dismissed European views is simplarly rooted in US domestic politics, specifically neocon identification of European critiques with the discredited (in their view) and bitterly resented US "left." Finally, the paper examines the US-European divide in terms of Kuntsen's characterization of hegemony as composed of punitive, remunerative and normative aspects. The European challenge is at present a normative one. Regardless of the independent merit of the critique, this challenge may well provoke greater international instability rather than less in the short term. This is because the normative challenge to the US weakens US hegemony by undermiing its moral authority and thereby encourages challenges to -- and even attacks upon -- the US.