Americanization
Americanization or Americanisation (see spelling differences) is the influence of the American culture and economy on other countries outside the United States, including their media, cuisine, business practices, popular culture, technology and political techniques. Some observers have described Americanization as synonymous with progress and innovation.[4][5][6]
This article is about the influence the United States of America has on the culture of other countries. For the process of acculturation by immigrants or native populations to American customs and values, see Americanization (immigration). For other uses, see Americanization (disambiguation).
The cinema of the United States has dominated most of the world's medias markets since the 1910s, and is the chief medium by which the international community sees American fashions, customs, scenery, and way of life.[7][8] The top 50 highest-grossing films of all time were all made either entirely or partially in the United States or were financed by U.S. production companies, even with limited or no artistic involvement.[9] The top 50 constituents set and filmed entirely in the United Kingdom, like some of the Harry Potter franchise, or with deliberately and quintessentially British source material, like the Lord of the Rings series, count as American productions for solely financial reasons. This coopting of the works of other nations and cultures into "American" works (and the hegemonic ability to do as such) forms part of many critical definitions of Americanization.[10]
United States-based commercial enterprises operating internationally are also associated with Americanization. Notably, the Coca-Cola Company was previously the top global company by revenue,[11] giving rise to the term "Coca-Cola diplomacy" for anything emblematic of U.S. soft power. U.S.-based fast food franchises such as McDonald's, Subway, Starbucks, Burger King, Pizza Hut, KFC and Domino's Pizza, among others, have numerous outlets around the world. Of the top ten global brands (2017) by revenue, seven are based in the United States:[12] Apple Inc., Google, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Amazon, Facebook, and IBM.
During the Cold War, Americanization was the primary soft power method chosen to counter the polar process of Sovietization around the world. Education, schools, and particularly universities became the main target for Americanization. Resistance to Americanization within the university community restrained its effectiveness,[13] though it was still much more successful than Sovietization.[14]: 6 Americanization has become more prevalent since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, which left America as the world's sole superpower (the full soft power of China as a potential competing influence has yet to manifest within Occidental pop culture). Americanization found yet another gear with the advent of widespread high-speed Internet use in the mid-2000s (notably heavily censored in China).
Criticism of Americanization has included opposition to U.S. investments in Europe during the 1960s,[15] which subsided by the 1970s.[16] A new dimension of anti-Americanism is fear of the pervasiveness of American Internet technology.[17]
Definitions[edit]
Like many concepts in social sciences, the term has been called ambiguous, however, a rough consensus on its meaning exists. Harm G. Schröter who focused on the economic dimension of the process, defined it as "an adapted transfer of values, behaviours, institutions, technologies, patterns of organization, symbols and norms from the [United States] to the economic life of other states".[14]: 3–4 Mel van Elteren defined this in a negative way, as "a process in which economic, technological, political, social, cultural and/or socio–psychological influences emanating from America or Americans impinge on values, norms, belief systems, mentalities, habits, rules, technologies, practices, institutions and behaviors of non-Americans".[18]: 103
Recent trends[edit]
Americanization has become more prevalent since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.[36] Until the late 1980s, the communist press could be counted on to be especially critical of the United States. To some extent, Russia continued that role under Vladimir Putin, and there are similar tendencies in China. Putin in 2013 published an opinion piece in The New York Times that attacked the American tendency to see itself as an exceptional indispensable nation. "It is extremely dangerous," Putin warned, "to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation."[37]
A new dimension of anti-Americanism is fear of the pervasiveness of American Internet technology. Americanization has arrived through widespread high-speed Internet and smartphone technology since 2008, with a large fraction of the new apps and hardware being designed in Silicon Valley.[17] In Europe, there is growing concern about excess Americanization through Google, Facebook, Twitter, the iPhone, and Uber, among many other American Internet-based corporations. European governments have increasingly expressed concern about privacy issues, as well as antitrust and taxation issues regarding the new American giants. There is a fear that they are significantly evading taxes and posting information that may violate European privacy laws.[38] The Wall Street Journal in 2015 reported "deep concerns in Europe's highest policy circles about the power of U.S. technology companies."[39]
Historiography[edit]
The Americanization of the Navajo at Canyon de Chelly was carried out by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the late 1800s.[40]
In 1902 the British journalist William Stead used this term in the title of his book, The Americanization of the World, in which he discussed the growing popularity of the "American ideas".[5]
Berghahn (2010) analyzes the debate on the usefulness of the concepts of 'Americanization' and 'Westernization'. He reviews the recent research on the European–American relationship during the Cold War that has dealt with the cultural influence of the United States upon Europe. He then discusses the relevant work on this subject in the fields of economic and business history. Overall, the article tries to show that those who have applied the concept of 'Americanization' to their research on cultural or economic history have been well aware of the complexities of trans-Atlantic relations in this period, whether they were viewed as a two-way exchange or as a process of circulation.[5]
Criticism[edit]
Some critics believe that the result of the rivalry between Sinicization and Americanization may lead to the emergence of a third power or turn one of the two into the actor with the most bargaining power. In the midst of this competition, the interests and rights of local businesses may be violated.[41] Others such as Francis Fukuyama argue that the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 prompted a unipolar global capitalist reality that meant the "end of history".[42] Some see this as a flawed view, mired in US exceptionalism. John Fousek said "the triumphalism embedded in Francis Fukuyama's view that the end of the Cold War marked the end of history, constitutes a new, historically contingent variation on the ideology that framed conflict in the beginning".[43] Instead Americanisation, in the eyes of Mary Nolan, is not an all consuming force and what emerged during 1990 was "a multipolar global order".[44] Therefore, the actual impact the U.S. and Americanisation has on the globe is hotly debated and runs deep into modern political policymaking. The traditional exceptional image of U.S. complete hegemonic power can be "quite dangerous" because it prompted American intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan, which just like in Vietnam, proved to show the limitations of American power across the globe.[43]