“We may be caught in the trap of a garrison state”:* Harold D. Lasswell, the American Middle Class and the Political Legitimacy of the National Security State

Abstract

The cases of Snowden and Manning have contributed to the re-opening of the public and academic debate about national security, individual freedom and democracy. This debate began after 9/11 when the war on terror renewed the state-building process that had begun after World War II. Although historians have reconstructed the historical making of the national security state, the essay sheds new light on the debate culminating in the National Security Act by analyzing the writings of the social scientist that first urged upon Americans the perils of a “garrison state”: Harold D. Lasswell. His scientific essays and public speeches recognized the international role of the United States and the related necessities of national security, but suggested adjustments that—in his mind—would avoid the rise of a garrison state. What emerges was the question of the political legitimation of the national security state, a legitimation that Lasswell based upon the consensus of the American middle class.