Ross (1991) argued that there are three generic varieties of American exceptionalism:

 

• supernaturalist explanations which emphasize the causal potency of God in selecting America as a "city on a hill" to serve as an example for the rest of the world,

• genetic interpretations which emphasize racial traits, ethnicity, or gender, and

• environmental explanations such as geography, climate, availability of natural resources, social structure, and type of political economy.

The term was first used in respect of the United States by Alexis de Tocqueville in 1831. American exceptionalism is close to the idea of Manifest Destiny, a term used by Jacksonian Democrats in the 1840s to promote the annexation of much of what is now the Western United States (the Oregon Territory, the Texas Annexation, and the Mexican Cession). The term was later used in the 1890s by Republicans as a theoretical justification for U.S. expansion outside of North America.

 

The term has also come to describe the belief that the United States has an exceptional position among countries, and should not be bound by international law except where it serves American interests. This position is driven by a (usually implicit) premise that the United States cannot violate international law (and in particular international human rights norms) because of the view that America itself was largely responsible for instigating those norms in the first place. This view has come under stress due to international condemnation of U.S. human rights practices under the doctrine of War on Terror.

 

The basis most commonly cited for American exceptionalism is the idea that the United States and its people hold a special place in the world, by offering opportunity and hope for humanity, derived from a unique balance of public and private interests governed by constitutional ideals that are focused on personal and economic freedom. It is therefore used by United States citizens to indicate a moral superiority of America or Americans. Others use it to refer to the American concept as itself an exceptional ideal which gives the country a privileged position, and which may or may not always be upheld by the actual people and government of the nation. Researchers and academics, however, generally use the term to strictly mean sharp and measurable differences in public opinion and political behavior between Americans and their counterparts in other developed democracies.

 

Opponents of the concept of American exceptionalism believe it to be little more than ethnocentrism and propaganda. They argue that justifications for an America-centered view of the world are inherently similar to those of many other nations, both ancient and modern, that have claimed an exceptional nature or a destiny different from all other countries. Great Britain at the height of the British Empire, Israel, the USSR and Nazi Germany have claimed manifest exceptionalism, as have many historic empires such as Ancient Rome and China, and a wide range of minor kingdoms and tribes in history. In each case a basis was presented as to why the country was exceptional compared to all other countries, drawing upon circumstance, cultural background and mythos, and self-perceived national aims. There is therefore a sharp divide between the views of those who believe in American exceptionalism, and those who disagree with it.