In this second part of a series of posts on American exceptionalism, I consider the common claim by the American right that the American state is particularly small relative to those of other advanced democracies, and that this fact helps to constitute a desirable “American exceptionalism,” featuring higher economic growth and more respect for individual liberty.
There is no doubt that the American state appears to be small in international comparisons, particularly when GDP is used in the denominator. Thus, public and mandatory private social spending (spending on old age, disability, unemployment, health, housing, active labor market policies, and similar programs) as a percentage of GDP was 16.3% in 2005, the last year for which data are available from the OECD. (This figure includes all levels of government.) By comparison, the figures for Sweden, the UK, and France were 29.8%, 22.1%, and 29.5%, respectively. The only rich democracies close…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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