ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the early period of America's history as a new nation, in an effort to elucidate through comparative analysis some of the problems and some of the developmental processes that are common to all new nations. It also highlights some of the circumstances that were unique to American development, some of the conditions that made young America a particularly auspicious place to develop democratic institutions. During the Revolutionary era the need to stress national unity sometimes induced Americans to become forgetful of their diverse ethnic origins and to overlook the persistence of cultural differences. Democracy may be conceived of as a system of institutionalized opposition in which the people choose among alternative contenders for public office. The almost unchallenged rule of the Virginia Dynasty and the Democratic-Republican Party served to legitimate national authority and democratic rights.
