democratization, through intervention and force if necessary. Those advocating the
concept of the US as evangelic also tend to be more optimistic about the quality of
democracy at home: US institutions, if flawed, are comparatively superior and fit for
export.
Vindicationsism also contains an underlying claim about the efficacy of US
power to effect democratic change. According to this school, the expansion of US power
tends to correlate positively with the expansion of democracy internationally. Huntigton,
for example, argues that “any increase in the power or influence of the US in world
affairs generally results…in the promotion of liberty and human rights in the world.”
61
Vindicationists are comparatively less concerned about the potential for abuse inherent in
any missionary exercise. American power is less likely to be misused or corrupted than
that of any other government, both because American leaders are generally committed to
liberal-democratic values and because of the constraints impose by the American political
system’s institutional dispersion of power.
62
There are two central, underlying philosophical issues at stake between these two
positions:
Calvinism
Exemplarism and vindicationsim share a Puritan sense of mission, but are rooted
in different aspects of the early American Calvinist ethos. These co-existing Calvinist
traditions have historically offered distinct perspectives on the character of American
political life and the precise nature of its moral obligations to the world.
61
Samuel Huntington, “American Ideals versus American Institutions,” Political Science Quarterly. 97:1
(Spring 1982).
62
This argument is made explicitly by Huntington, but is similar to many of the causal mechanisms debated
in the democratic peace literature listed in footnote 42. Huntington, Politics of Disharmony, p.257.
Convention