UNIVERSITATEA DE STAT DIN REPUBLICA MOLDOVA

FACULTATEA RELAȚII INTERNAȚIONALE, ȘTIINȚE POLITICE ȘI ADMINISTRATIVE

REFERAT

Obiectul: Discursul politic

Tema: Statele Unite ale Americii

A realizat: Pușcașu Dionisie 102 RI

Coordonator științific:

Chișinău

2017
 CONTENT
General characteristic
History
Politics
Economy
Culture
 General characteristic

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S.)
or America, is a constitutional federal republic composed of 50 states, a federal district,
five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. Forty-eight of the fifty
states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North
America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of
North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering
Strait from Russia to the west. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific
Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
Nine time zones are covered. The geography, climate and wildlife of the country are
extremely diverse.
At 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million km2) and with over 324 million people, the
United States is the world's third- or fourth-largest country by total area, third-largest by
land area, and the third-most populous. It is one of the world's most ethnically
diverse and multicultural nations, and is home to the world's largest immigrant
population. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city is New York City; nine
other major metropolitan areas—each with at least 4.5 million inhabitants and the largest
having more than 13 million people—are Los
Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, Miami, Atlanta, Boston, and San
Francisco.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years
ago. European colonization began in the 16th century. The United States emerged
from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great
Britain and the colonies following the Seven Years' War led to the American Revolution,
which began in 1775. On July 4, 1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary
War, the colonies unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence. The war ended
in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain,
representing the first successful war of independence against a European
power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation,
adopted in 1781, were felt to have provided inadequate federal powers. The first ten
amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to
guarantee many fundamental civil liberties.
The United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout
the 19th century, displacing Native American tribes, acquiring new territories, and
gradually admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848. During the second
half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of legal slavery in the
country. By the end of that century, the United States extended into the Pacific
Ocean, and its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to
soar. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a
global military power. The United States emerged from World War II as a
global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use
them in warfare, and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The
end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United
States as the world's sole superpower. The U.S. is a founding member of the United
Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American
States (OAS), and other international organizations.
The United States is a highly developed country, with the world's largest economy by
nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP. It ranks highly in several measures of
socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita
GDP, and productivity per person. While the U.S. economy is considered post-industrial,
characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the manufacturing
sector remains the second-largest in the world. Though its population is only 4.3% of the
world total, the United States accounts for nearly a quarter of world GDP and over a third
of global military spending, making it the world's foremost economic and military power.
The United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader
in scientific research and technological innovations.
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion
and forbids Congress from passing laws respecting its establishment.
Christianity is by far the most common religion practiced in the U.S., but other religions
are followed, too. In a 2013 survey, 56% of Americans said that religion played a "very
important role in their lives", a far higher figure than that of any other wealthy nation. In
a 2009 Gallup poll, 42% of Americans said that they attended church weekly or almost
weekly; the figures ranged from a low of 23% in Vermont to a high of 63% in
Mississippi.
70.6% Christian
22.8% Irreligious
1.9% Jewish
0.9% Muslim
0.7% Buddhist
0.7% Hindu
1.8% other faiths

History
 Timeline
 Prehistory
 Pre-colonial
 Colonial period
 1776-1789
 1789-1849
 1849-1865
 1865-1918
 1918-1945
 1945-1964
 1965-1980
 1980-1991
 1991-2008
 2008-present
The date of the start of the history of the United States is a subject of debate among
historians. Older textbooks start with the arrival of Christopher Columbus on October 12,
1492 and emphasize the European background of the colonization of the Americas, or
they start around 1600 and emphasize the American frontier. In recent decades American
schools and universities typically have shifted back in time to include more on the
colonial period and much more on the prehistory of the Native Americans.
Indigenous people lived in what is now the United States for thousands of years before
European colonists began to arrive, mostly from England, after 1600. The Spanish built
small settlements in Florida and the Southwest, and the French along the Mississippi
River and the Gulf Coast. By the 1770s, thirteen British colonies contained two and a half
million people along the Atlantic coast east of the Appalachian Mountains. After the end
of the French and Indian Wars in the 1760s, the British government imposed a series of
new taxes, rejecting the colonists' argument that any new taxes had to be approved by
them (see Stamp Act 1765). Tax resistance, especially the Boston Tea Party (1773), led
to punitive laws (the Intolerable Acts) by Parliament designed to end self-government in
Massachusetts. American Patriots (as they called themselves) adhered to a political
ideology called republicanism that emphasized civic duty, virtue, and opposition to
corruption, fancy luxuries and aristocracy.
Armed conflict began in 1775 as Patriots drove the royal officials out of every colony and
assembled in mass meetings and conventions. In 1776, the Second Continental
Congress declared that there was a new, independent nation, the United States of
America, not just a collection of disparate colonies. With large-scale military and
financial support from France and the military leadership of General George Washington,
the American Patriots won the Revolutionary War. The peace treaty of 1783 gave the
new nation the land east of the Mississippi River (except Florida and Canada). The
central government established by the Articles of Confederation proved ineffectual at
providing stability, as it had no authority to collect taxes and had no executive officer.
Congress called a convention to meet secretly in Philadelphia in 1787. It wrote a new
Constitution, which was adopted in 1789. In 1791, a Bill of Rights was added to
guarantee inalienable rights. With Washington as the first president and Alexander
Hamilton his chief political and financial adviser, a strong central government was
created. When Thomas Jefferson became president he purchased the Louisiana
Territory from France, doubling the size of the United States. A second and final war
with Britain was fought in 1812.
Encouraged by the notion of Manifest Destiny, federal territory expanded all the way to
the Pacific. The U.S. always was large in terms of area, but its population was small, only
4 million in 1790. Population growth was rapid, reaching 7.2 million in 1810, 32 million
in 1860, 76 million in 1900, 132 million in 1940, and 321 million in 2015. Economic
growth in terms of overall GDP was even faster. However, compared to European
powers, the nation's military strength was relatively limited in peacetime before 1940.
The expansion was driven by a quest for inexpensive land for yeoman farmers and slave
owners. The expansion of slavery was increasingly controversial and fueled political and
constitutional battles, which were resolved by compromises. Slavery was abolished in all
states north of the Mason–Dixon line by 1804, but the South continued to profit off the
institution, producing high-value cotton exports to feed increasing high demand in
Europe. The 1860 presidential election of Republican Abraham Lincoln was on a
platform of ending the expansion of slavery and putting it on a path to extinction.
Seven cotton-based deep South slave states seceded and later founded
the Confederacy four months before Lincoln's inauguration. No nation ever recognized
the Confederacy, but it opened the war by attacking Fort Sumter in 1861. A surge of
nationalist outrage in the North fueled a long, intense American Civil War (1861–1865).
It was fought largely in the South as the overwhelming material and manpower
advantages of the North proved decisive in a long war. The war's result was restoration of
the Union, the impoverishment of the South, and the abolition of slavery. In
the Reconstruction era (1863–1877), legal and voting rights were extended to the freed
slave. The national government emerged much stronger, and because of the Fourteenth
Amendment in 1868, it gained the explicit duty to protect individual rights. However,
when white Democrats regained their power in the South during the 1870s, often by
paramilitary suppression of voting, they passed Jim Crow laws to maintain white
supremacy, and new disfranchising constitutions that prevented most African
Americans and many poor whites from voting, a situation that continued for decades until
gains of the civil rights movement in the 1960s and passage of federal legislation to
enforce constitutional rights.
The United States became the world's leading industrial power at the turn of the 20th
century due to an outburst of entrepreneurship in the Northeast and Midwest and the
arrival of millions of immigrant workers and farmers from Europe. The national railroad
network was completed with the work of Chinese immigrants and large-scale mining and
factories industrialized the Northeast and Midwest. Mass dissatisfaction with corruption,
inefficiency and traditional politics stimulated the Progressive movement, from the 1890s
to 1920s, which led to many social and political reforms. In 1920, the 19th Amendment
to the Constitution guaranteed women's suffrage (right to vote). This followed the 16th
and 17th amendments in 1913, which established the first national income tax and direct
election of US senators to Congress. Initially neutral during World War I, the
US declared war on Germany in 1917 and later funded the Allied victory the following
year.
After a prosperous decade in the 1920s, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 marked the onset
of the decade-long worldwide Great Depression. Democratic President Franklin D.
Roosevelt ended the Republican dominance of the White House and implemented
his New Deal programs for relief, recovery, and reform. The New Deal, which
defined modern American liberalism, included relief for the unemployed, support for
farmers, Social Security and a minimum wage. After the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States entered World War II along with Britain,
the Soviet Union, China, and the smaller number of Allied nations. The U.S. financed the
Allied war effort and helped defeat Nazi Germany in the European theater. Its
involvement culminated in using the newly invented nuclear weapons on Japanese
cities that helped defeat Imperial Japan in the Pacific theater.
The United States and the Soviet Union emerged as rival superpowers after World War
II. During the Cold War, the US and the USSR confronted each other indirectly in
the arms race, the Space Race, proxy wars, and propaganda campaigns. US foreign
policy during the Cold War was built around the support of Western
Europe and Japan along with the policy of containment, stopping the spread
of communism. The US joined the wars in Korea and Vietnam to try to stop its spread. In
the 1960s, in large part due to the strength of the civil rights movement, another wave of
social reforms were enacted by enforcing the constitutional rights of voting and freedom
of movement to African-Americans and other racial minorities. Native American
activism also rose. The Cold War ended when the Soviet Union officially dissolved in
1991, leaving the United States as the world's only superpower.
After the Cold War, the United States focused on international conflicts around
the Middle East in response to the Gulf War in the early 1990s. The beginning of the 21st
century saw the September 11 attacks by Al-Qaeda in 2001, which would later followed
by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2008, the United States had its worst economic
crisis since the Great Depression, which has been followed by slower than usual rates of
economic growth during the 2010s.

Politics
The United States is a federal republic in which the president, Congress, and federal
courts share powers reserved to the national government according to its Constitution. At
the same time, the federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments.
The executive branch is headed by the President and is formally independent of both the
legislature and the judiciary. The cabinet serves as a set of advisers to the President. They
include the Vice President and heads of the executive departments. Legislative power is
vested in the two chambers of Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The judicial branch (or judiciary), composed of the Supreme Court and lower federal
courts, exercises judicial power (or judiciary). The judiciary's function is to interpret
the United States Constitution and federal laws and regulations. This includes resolving
disputes between the executive and legislative branches. The federal government's layout
is explained in the Constitution.
Two political parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, have dominated
American politics since the American Civil War, although there are also smaller
parties like the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, and the Constitution Party.
There are major differences between the political system of the United States and that of
most other developed democracies. These include greater power in the upper house of the
legislature, a wider scope of power held by the Supreme Court, the separation of
powers between the legislature and the executive, and the dominance of only two main
parties. Third parties have less political influence in the United States than in other
developed country democracies; this is because of a combination of stringent historic
controls. These controls take shape in the form of state and federal laws, informal media
prohibitions, and winner-take-all elections, and include ballot access issues and exclusive
debate rules.
This multiplicity of jurisdictions reflects the country's history. The federal government
was created by the states, which as colonies were established separately and governed
themselves independently of the others. Units of local government were created by the
colonies to efficiently carry out various state functions. As the country expanded, it
admitted new states modeled on the existing ones.
 American ideology
Republicanism, along with a form of classical liberalism, remains the dominant
ideology. Central documents include the Declaration of
Independence (1776), Constitution (1787), The Federalist Papers (1788), Bill of
Rights (1791), and Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (1863), among others. The
political scientist Louis Hartz articulated this theme in American political culture in The
Liberal Tradition in America (1955). Hartz saw the antebellum South as breaking away
from this central ideology in the 1820s as it constructed a fantasy to support hierarchical,
feudal society. Others, such as David Gordon of the libertarian, Alabama-based Mises
Institute argue that the secessionists who formed the Confederacy in 1861 retained the
values of classical liberalism. Among the core tenets of this ideology are the following:

 Civic duty: Citizens have the responsibility to understand and support the
government, participate in elections, pay taxes, and perform military service.
 Opposition to Political corruption
 Democracy: The government is answerable to citizens, who may change the
representatives through elections.
 Equality before the law: The laws should attach no special privilege to any citizen.
Government officials are subject to the law just as others are
 Freedom of religion: The government can neither support nor suppress religion
 Freedom of speech: The government cannot restrict through law or action the
personal speech of a citizen; a marketplace of ideas
In response to Hartz and others, political scientist Rogers M. Smith argued in Civic
Ideals (1999) that in addition to liberalism and republicanism, United States political
culture has historically served to exclude various populations from access to full
citizenship. Terming this ideological tradition "ascriptive inegalitarianism," Smith traces
its relevance in nativist, sexist, and racist beliefs and practices alongside struggles over
citizenship laws from the early colonial period to the Progressive Era, and further
political debates in the following century.
At the time of the United States' founding, agriculture and small private businesses
dominated the economy, and state governments left welfare issues to private or local
initiative. Laissez-faire ideology was largely abandoned in the 1930s during the Great
Depression. Between the 1930s and 1970s, fiscal policy was characterized by the
Keynesian consensus, a time during which modern American liberalism dominated
economic policy virtually unchallenged. Since the late 1970s and early 1980s, however,
laissez-faire ideology, as explained especially by Milton Friedman, has once more
become a powerful force in American politics. While the American welfare state
expanded more than threefold after World War II, it has been at 20% of GDP since the
late 1970s. As of 2014 modern American liberalism, and modern American
conservatism are engaged in a continuous political battle, characterized by what The
Economist describes as "greater divisiveness [and] close, but bitterly fought elections."
 Usage of “left-right” politics
The modern American political spectrum and the usage of the terms "left–right politics",
"liberalism", and "conservatism" in the United States differs from the rest of the world.
According to American historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. (writing in 1956), "Liberalism in
the American usage has little in common with the word as used in the politics of any
European country, save possibly Britain". Schlesinger noted that American liberalism
does not support classical liberalism's commitment to limited government and laissez-
faire economics. Because those two positions are instead generally supported by
American conservatives, historian Leo P. Ribuffo noted in 2011, "what Americans now
call conservatism much of the world calls liberalism or neoliberalism."
 Suffrage
The right of suffrage is nearly universal for citizens 18 years of age and older. All states
and the District of Columbia contribute to the electoral vote for President. However, the
District, and other U.S. holdings like Puerto Rico and Guam, lack federal representation
in Congress. These constituencies do not have the right to choose any political figure
outside their respective areas. Each commonwealth, territory, or district can only elect a
non-voting delegate to serve in the House of Representatives.
Women's suffrage became an important issue after the American Civil War of 1861-
1865. After the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified in
1870, giving African American men the right to vote, various women's groups wanted the
right to vote as well. Two major interest groups formed. The first group was the National
Woman Suffrage Association, formed by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
that wanted to work for suffrage on the federal level and to push for more governmental
changes, such as the granting of property rights to married women. The second group,
the American Woman Suffrage Association formed by Lucy Stone, aimed to give women
the right to vote. In 1890, the two groups merged to form the National American Woman
Suffrage Association (NAWSA). The NAWSA then mobilized to obtain support state-by-
state, and by 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was
ratified, giving women the right to vote.
Student activism against the Vietnam War in the 1960s prompted the passage of
the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which lowered
the voting age from 21 to 18, and prohibited age discrimination at the voting booth.
 Stage government
States governments have the power to make laws that are not granted to the federal
government or denied to the states in the U.S. Constitution for all citizens. These
include education, family law, contract law, and most crimes. Unlike the federal
government, which only has those powers granted to it in the Constitution, a state
government has inherent powers allowing it to act unless limited by a provision of the
state or national constitution.
Like the federal government, state governments have three branches: executive,
legislative, and judicial. The chief executive of a state is its popularly elected governor,
who typically holds office for a four-year term (although in some states the term is two
years). Except for Nebraska, which has unicameral legislature, all states have a bicameral
legislature, with the upper house usually called the Senate and the lower house called
the House of Representatives, the House of Delegates, Assembly or something similar. In
most states, senators serve four-year terms, and members of the lower house serve two-
year terms.
The constitutions of the various states differ in some details but generally follow a pattern
similar to that of the federal Constitution, including a statement of the rights of the people
and a plan for organizing the government. However, state constitutions are generally
more detailed.
 Local government
The United States has 89,500 local governments, including 3,033 counties, 19,492
municipalities, 16,500 townships, 13,000 school districts, and 37,000 other special
districts that deal with issues like fire protection. Local governments directly serve the
needs of the people, providing everything from police and fire protection to sanitary
codes, health regulations, education, public transportation, and housing. Typically local
elections are nonpartisan—local activists suspend their party affiliations when
campaigning and governing.
About 28% of the people live in cities of 100,000 or more population. City governments
are chartered by states, and their charters detail the objectives and powers of
the municipal government. The United States Constitution only provides
for states and territories as subdivisions of the country, and the Supreme Court has
accordingly confirmed the supremacy of state sovereignty over municipalities. For most
big cities, cooperation with both state and federal organizations is essential to meeting the
needs of their residents. Types of city governments vary widely across the nation.
However, almost all have a central council, elected by the voters, and an executive
officer, assisted by various department heads, to manage the city's affairs. Cities in the
West and South usually have nonpartisan local politics.
There are three general types of city government: the mayor-council, the commission,
and the council-manager. These are the pure forms; many cities have developed a
combination of two or three of them.
 Political parties
The modern political party system in the United States is a two-party system dominated
by the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. These two parties have won
every United States presidential election since 1852 and have controlled the United States
Congress since 1856. The Democratic Party generally positions itself as left-of-center in
American politics and supports a modern American liberal platform, while the
Republican Party generally positions itself as right-of-center and supports a modern
American conservative platform.
Third parties have achieved relatively minor representation from time to time at local
levels. The Libertarian Party is the largest third party in the country, claiming more than
250,000 registered voters in 2013; it generally positions itself as centrist or radical
centrist and supports a classical liberal position. Other contemporary third parties include
the left-wing Green Party, supporting Green politics, and the right-wing Constitution
Party, supporting paleoconservatism.
 Elections
Unlike in some parliamentary systems, Americans vote for a specific candidate instead of
directly selecting a particular political party. With a federal government, officials are
elected at the federal (national), state and local levels. On a national level, the President,
is elected indirectly by the people, through an Electoral College. In modern times, the
electors virtually always vote with the popular vote of their state. All members
of Congress, and the offices at the state and local levels are directly elected.
Various federal and state laws regulate elections. The United States Constitution defines
(to a basic extent) how federal elections are held, in Article One and Article Two and
various amendments. State law regulates most aspects of electoral law, including
primaries, the eligibility of voters (beyond the basic constitutional definition), the running
of each state's electoral college, and the running of state and local elections.

Economy
The United States has a capitalist mixed economy which is fueled by abundant natural
resources and high productivity. According to the International Monetary Fund, the U.S.
GDP of $16.8 trillion constitutes 24% of the gross world product at market exchange
rates and over 19% of the gross world product at purchasing power parity (PPP).
The US's nominal GDP is estimated to be $17.528 trillion as of 2014 From 1983 to 2008,
U.S. real compounded annual GDP growth was 3.3%, compared to a 2.3% weighted
average for the rest of the G7. The country ranks ninth in the world in nominal GDP per
capita and sixth in GDP per capita at PPP. The U.S. dollar is the world's primary reserve
currency.
The United States is the largest importer of goods and second-largest exporter,
though exports per capita are relatively low. In 2010, the total U.S. trade deficit was $635
billion. Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, and Germany are its top trading partners. In 2010,
oil was the largest import commodity, while transportation equipment was the country's
largest export. Japan is the largest foreign holder of U.S. public debt. The largest holder
of the U.S. debt are American entities, including federal government accounts and
the Federal Reserve, who hold the majority of the debt.
In 2009, the private sector was estimated to constitute 86.4% of the economy, with
federal government activity accounting for 4.3% and state and local government activity
(including federal transfers) the remaining 9.3%. The number of employees at all levels
of government outnumber those in manufacturing by 1.7 to 1. While its economy has
reached a postindustrial level of development and its service sector constitutes 67.8% of
GDP, the United States remains an industrial power. The leading business field by gross
business receipts is wholesale and retail trade; by net income it is manufacturing. In
the franchising business model, McDonald's and Subway are the two most recognized
brands in the world. Coca-Cola is the most recognized soft drink company in the world.
Chemical products are the leading manufacturing field. The United States is the largest
producer of oil in the world, as well as its second-largest importer. It is the world's
number one producer of electrical and nuclear energy, as well as liquid natural
gas, sulfur, phosphates, and salt. The National Mining Association provides data
pertaining to coal and minerals that
include beryllium, copper, lead, magnesium, zinc, titanium and others.
Agriculture accounts for just under 1% of GDP, yet the United States is the world's top
producer of corn and soybeans. The National Agricultural Statistics Service maintains
agricultural statistics for products that
include peanuts, oats, rye, wheat, rice, cotton, corn, barley, hay, sunflowers, and oilseeds.
In addition, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides livestock
statistics regarding beef, poultry, pork, and dairy products. The country is the primary
developer and grower of genetically modified food, representing half of the world's
biotech crops.
Consumer spending comprises 68% of the U.S. economy in 2015. In August 2010, the
American labor force consisted of 154.1 million people. With 21.2 million people,
government is the leading field of employment. The largest private employment sector is
health care and social assistance, with 16.4 million people. About 12% of workers
are unionized, compared to 30% in Western Europe. The World Bank ranks the United
States first in the ease of hiring and firing workers.[ The United States is ranked among
the top three in the Global Competitiveness Report as well. It has a smaller welfare
state and redistributes less income through government action than European nations tend
to.
The United States is the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers paid
vacation and is one of just a few countries in the world without paid family leave as a
legal right, with the others being Papua New Guinea, Suriname and Liberia. While
federal law currently does not require sick leave, it is a common benefit for government
workers and full-time employees at corporations. 74% of full-time American workers get
paid sick leave, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, although only 24% of part-
time workers get the same benefits. In 2009, the United States had the third-
highest workforce productivity per person in the world, behind Luxembourg and Norway.
It was fourth in productivity per hour, behind those two countries and the Netherlands.
The 2008–2012 global recession significantly affected the United States, with output still
below potential according to the Congressional Budget Office. It brought
high unemployment (which has been decreasing but remains above pre-recession levels),
along with low consumer confidence, the continuing decline in home values and increase
in foreclosures and personal bankruptcies, an escalating federal debt crisis, inflation,
and rising petroleum and food prices. There remains a record proportion of long-term
unemployed, continued decreasing household income, and tax and federal budget
increases.

Culture
The United States is home to many cultures and a wide variety of ethnic groups,
traditions, and values. Aside from the Native American, Native Hawaiian, and Native
Alaskan populations, nearly all Americans or their ancestors settled or immigrated within
the past five centuries. Mainstream American culture is a Western culture largely derived
from the traditions of European immigrants with influences from many other sources,
such as traditions brought by slaves from Africa. More recent immigration from Asia and
especially Latin America has added to a cultural mix that has been described as both a
homogenizing melting pot, and a heterogeneous salad bowl in which immigrants and
their descendants retain distinctive cultural characteristics.
Core American culture was established by Protestant British colonists and shaped by
the frontier settlement process, with the traits derived passed down to descendants and
transmitted to immigrants through assimilation. Americans have traditionally been
characterized by a strong work ethic, competitiveness, and individualism, as well as a
unifying belief in an "American creed" emphasizing liberty, equality, private property,
democracy, rule of law, and a preference for limited government. Americans are
extremely charitable by global standards. According to a 2006 British study, Americans
gave 1.67% of GDP to charity, more than any other nation studied, more than twice the
second place British figure of 0.73%, and around twelve times the French figure of
0.14%.
The American Dream, or the perception that Americans enjoy high social mobility, plays
a key role in attracting immigrants. Whether this perception is realistic has been a topic
of debate. While mainstream culture holds that the United States is a classless
society, scholars identify significant differences between the country's social classes,
affecting socialization, language, and values. Americans' self-images, social viewpoints,
and cultural expectations are associated with their occupations to an unusually close
degree. While Americans tend greatly to value socioeconomic achievement,
being ordinary or average is generally seen as a positive attribute.