The West as Anglo-America: Plural and Pluralist

Abstract

This paper develops three arguments. First, with specific reference to Samuel Huntington’s, Louis Hartz’s and James Bennett’s insistence on the discursive unity of Western civilization, America, and Anglo-America I develop a number counterarguments, backed by an inquiry into the character of anti-American sentiments in Anglo-America , that stress their plural and pluralist character. Second, I sketch different constructions of Anglo-America as one example of the West that invoke different conceptions of collective identity and reveal different political practices or policies. Intense discussions of empire and race around the turn of the 20th century have been replaced a century later by other constructs such as complex interdependence, complex sovereignty, security communities and special relations. Third, I offer a discussion of America and Europe as distinctly different, though related, conceptualizations of the West and of Americanization and Europeanization as civilizational processes that embody distinctive practices.

Keywords: Anglo-America, civilization, West

JEL Classification: 051, 056, Z00, Z10