American ‘exceptionalism’ refers to the belief ‘that the United States differs qualitatively from other developed nations, because of its unique origins, national credo, historical evolution, and distinctive political and religious institutions.’ The theory that the United States is different from other countries, its ‘exceptionalism’ stemming from its emergence from the Revolution, becoming the first new nation, and developing a uniquely American ideology based on liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, populism, and laissez-faire first surfaced in the writing of Alexis de Tocqueville who described the United States as ‘exceptional’ as early as the first half of the nineteenth century. He remarked, ‘The position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no other democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one.’