ABSTRACT
America has become the land of paradox as well as opportunity. America has emerged as the predominant world power, economically, militarily, politically, and culturally. Yet, freed by the end of the Cold War from a need to focus on external enemies, America appears to have arrived at a crossroads. The political contradictions of democracy are found in the fact that unrestrained excesses of democratic virtue run the risk of compromising the political foundations from which they draw their legitimacy and gain a respectful hearing. Divisive policy and cultural issues permeate one's politics. Paradoxically however, most Americans seem to be in general agreement about many of these matters. The controversies swirling around the cultural foundations of American national identity, not surprisingly, have been paralleled by debates on the decline of "social capital". America's depleted leadership capital suffered another setback as a result of one of the most evenly split, bitterly fought, and unusually concluded presidential elections since 1876.
