these groups as one would like. The end result is that community itself is divided into subsets or enclaves and one therefore speaks not of the American community as a whole, but of the many individual communities that comprise the American polity. Such a situation as described by Bellah, et al (1985) inevitably leads to a bifurcation within the polity. While recognizing that this is the case, Bellah, et al (1985) question placing faith in the private sector to increase the common good and make the case that it is to the formal public institutions of the United States that one must look for support in eliminating the many disadvantages that negatively impact on minorities.
Bellah, et al (1985) offer a longitudinal analysis of the American character beginning in colonial America and move through decades of American history to focus on the contrast between work, callings, and careers as determinants of individuality. They present individualism in the United States as pernicious and dependent on people finding callings rather than developing careers. They also make it clear that the historic American community's sense of connectedness was based upo
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