evidence: - Canadians are less self-reliant and more dependent on state programs than Americans to provide for everyday needs of citizens. - Canadians are more "elitist" than Americans in the sense that they are more respectful and deferential towards authorities. [...] Max Weber’s analysis of modern society centres on the concept of rationalization. Arguably, the primary focus of Weber’s entire sociological oeuvre was to determine how and why Western civilization and capitalism developed where and when they did. Why was the West the West? Why did the Western world modernize and develop modern science, industry, military, and democracy first when, for centuries, Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and the Middle East were technically, scientifically, and culturally more advanced than the West?