America’s greatness, in Rand’s judgment, lay in the fact that it was the first nation in history to treat government as the individual’s servant rather than his master. As she put it, “All previous systems had held that man’s life belongs to society, that society can dispose of him in any way it pleases, and that any freedom he enjoys is his only by favor, by the permission of society, which may be revoked at any time. The United States held that man’s life is his by right . . . that a right is the property of an individual, that society as such has no rights, and that the only moral purpose of a government is the protection of individual rights.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/objectivist/2012/10/28/president-obama-duels-with-ayn-rand-over-what-makes-america-great/