America’s emphasis on individualism.

Individual Liberty and Social Control.—In the United States strong emphasis has always been laid upon individual freedom, and rightly so, because the encouragement of individual initiative is essential to progress in a new country. The exploitation of vast natural resources required that men should be given encouragement to pioneer, and should not be held down by too much governmental interference. “That government is best which interferes the least” was the common notion. Stress was laid upon the prosperity of the individual rather than upon the welfare of the whole people. This doctrine of extreme individualism undoubtedly served a useful purpose in the days when the country’s biggest problem was to increase production and gain for itself a place among the strong nations of the world.

The influence of the frontier.

To a considerable extent this emphasis upon individualism was due to the influence of the frontier. From the first settlement of the country down to about 1880 the American people were engaged in the task of marching steadily westward, conquering the wilderness as they went. This mastering of a great domain demanded qualities of enterprise, initiative, and individual courage. It developed men’s confidence in their own power and made them reliant upon their own efforts. In old countries the natural tendency is for the individual to look to the public authorities for leadership, guidance, and supervision; on the great American frontier the pioneers had to hew their own way. They preceded the state and the community. This emphasis upon individual initiative remained as the frontier rolled west and profoundly affected the whole social temper of the country.

The nature and scope of social control.

In time a reaction came. Social control developed. The more thickly populated a country becomes, the more complicated do the relations of individuals grow, and the greater is the need for general restraint. Social control, however, is not merely negative in its purpose. Its object is not simply to restrain individuals in their freedom of action but to encourage them in the thing which the general welfare demands. The government is the chief agency through which social control is exercised, but it is by no means the only one. Religious, fraternal, professional, and benevolent organizations do a good deal in the same general direction. Their function is to promote collective interests as distinguished from the interests of individuals; they protect the collective interests against the avarice or selfishness of individuals. The government exercises social control by means of laws and administrative orders; other organizations exercise it by their own rules or by customs which the members obey.

The limits of social control.

There is always a danger, of course, that social control may proceed too far. It is not the object of government and of social organizations to run all men in the same mould, making them mere automatons without individuality or initiative. Government should aim to give sufficient scope for every individual to use his abilities in the best possible way. Control over the acts and discretion of individuals is justified only where such control promotes, in the long run, the well-being of the greatest number of individuals. The state is not an end in itself. Society is not an end in itself. The individual is the end. Society and the state are merely means to the promotion of the general welfare and the welfare of the individual. Their activities in the way of exercising social control should go no further than this.

General References

C. H. Cooley, Social Organization, pp. 3-22;