ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the deeper political reasons for American accomplishment. And consideration of the various causes has served to emphasize the significance of the result. So far, maximum challenge has always brought adequate response from the people in whom the power of this Republic rests. The United States is not unique in world history merely because of its unparalleled material prosperity, still less because of its modest cultural accomplishment. What makes the Republic distinctive is the confidence that it places in Man's ability to plan for himself; its deep-rooted mistrust of governmental planning. The virtue of the Republic is not that it originated the idea of self-improvement, but that it embodies a political system directed to that end. Clearly the Republic demands of its citizens something more than, and quite other than, industrial and commercial enterprise. The greatest danger to the Republic lies in the increasing tendency to abandon the American in favor of the European political philosophy.
