Not all countries are like this. British politicians routinely tour their European neighbors to discover how the Finns handle education or the Germans run their train system, and then loot any smart ideas they stumble across. The British recently introduced a new early-childhood education system: Sure Start. The name might ring a bell. It was partly modeled on the American Head Start program. But U.S. politicians rarely go hunting for ideas abroad, and many would never dream of naming an initiative after a foreign program.

Why are Americans often skeptical of learning from policy solutions implemented elsewhere? U.S. identity is founded on a sense of political exceptionalism. The United States is seen as a unique repository of ideals under God’s watchful providence—the city on a hill. And America’s national success has only reinforced popular resistance to looking abroad for inspiration. Over the course of the 20th century, the United States bested every major rival and became the world’s sole superpower. Why copy British decline, Japan’s stagnant economy, or Greek debt? Ideology also comes into play. As other advanced democracies have embraced extensive welfare systems, the United States has become a relatively conservative member of the Western club. Today, the American right fears that copying fellow democracies means lurching to the left.

But here’s the catch: Shunning overseas policy innovation is dangerous. The United States is an incredibly successful country in many domains, and has an enormous amount to teach the world. Yet Americans also have a great deal to learn.

After all, it’s not as if Americans are enamored with the current state of government in Washington. Polls show that large majorities believe the country is on the “wrong track.” The United States has endured a run of failed wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The American Dream is receding, and social-mobility rates are actually higher in Canada and Europe than in the United States. On indicators like infant mortality and poverty, the United States lags far behind its peers.

Could the solution to some of these problems lie outside American shores? Given that only 5 percent of the world’s population is American, is it possible that the other 95 percent have a few smart ideas Americans could use? Putting on intellectual blinders may have been justified when the United States was one of a handful of democracies in the world. But now around half the world’s countries have representative regimes. These states face similar challenges, and it’s useful to see how the other guys are doing.

Perhaps Americans might learn from France and Germany’s foreign policy—after all, their warnings about the dangers of regime change in Iraq back in 2003 turned out to be quite prescient.

Or Americans could look to Australia’s experience with gun control, which has all but eliminated deadly gun rampages there.