Political culture and social security - A comparison of the United States and Germany

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,0, Martin Luther University, language: English, abstract: In this paper, it should be examined in which ways the difference in creating a social system by the state can be connected to cultural values which shape the political culture of the respective country. Of course, there are many other components which influence the development of social security in the United States like industrialization or economic growth. In the media one gets the impression that individualism is responsible for the unusual kind - from a German point of view - of social policy in the United States (Murswieck 1988: 8). Also David McKay emphasizes the fact that 'nothing more accurately seems to represent Americanism than a stress on individual rather than collective action' (2001: 11). But is individualism the only reason within cultural values for the belated public social policy in the United States?