Harold Dwight Lasswell is a well-known American sociologist who belonged to the Chicago school of this science. Popular thanks to his work in the field of political science. Born in 1902, died in 1978. Three of his most significant works were published in 1927, 1946 and 1947, and were devoted to the peculiarities of propaganda and behavior in the field of politics. Known for choosing a functional political approach. He actively resorted to psychological calculations, examining the topic of propaganda, politics.
general information
Harold Dwight Lasswell specialized in the peculiarities of mass communication and its connection with political power, worked in the field of the influence of these two phenomena on each other. He was engaged in content analysis in the field of communication. Communication regarded as an open form, called for mutual tolerance and to ensure for themselves and others access to basic life values.
A political scientist is revered as one of those who laid the foundation for political science in the modern presentation of this science. He adhered to the ideas of behaviorism in the field of politics. For the Chicago School of Sociology, he was among the founders. A sociologist and political scientist developed features of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of personality traits, active in various fields. At Yale, he received the status of an honorary professional in the field of rights. At the Center, political science held one of the director's posts. He was the head of the Political Science Association of his country. He spoke of the society of his native power as highly manipulated.
Important Milestones
Harold Lasswell came to behaviorism in the period 1918-1922, when he studied at the University of Chicago. It was then that he began to use the basic calculations of this trend to build his own conclusions. After completing the university and until 1938 inclusive, he also held the position of professor.
During World War II, the political scientist led the research department in the library organized by the sovereign congress, and dealt with aspects of the information war. At the same time he taught at the New School for Social Research, where he was invited as a lecturer. In the same period, he gained teaching experience at Yale Law School, and from the 46th he became a professor at Yale University.
As can be learned from a brief biography of Harold Dwight Lasswell, his area of specialization was the formation of a holistic science in politics. Field work was chosen as the main focus in defiance of theoretical research conducted earlier. To achieve what he had planned, he had to create a fundamentally new functional approach, for which he used social psychology and its methods and methods, and also resorted to the practices of psychoanalysis and psychiatric calculations. The scientist set himself the goal of studying political behavior and how much it is corrected by mass communications that spread the symbols of political power. Lasswell went down in history as one of the first to resort to content analysis technology.
Success of a scientist
From specialized publications you can find out that there were several major works that made Harold Lasswell especially famous and popular in politics. Who gets what, what channels he uses for this — the political scientist brought all these aspects into a harmonious system of a unified theory, calling it an act of communication. This act was decomposed into its constituent parts, an analytical scheme was constructed, which is a sequence of questions and answers.
Nowadays, Lasswell is known for perceiving political science as a self-recognizing body, which civilization needs to improve. He believed that in the historical era in which he was given the opportunity to live, the worldwide influence of the technological revolution was especially strong. At the same time, as he believed, the dependence on each other of various aspects of human activity, the life of society, significantly increases. Lasswell was one of the first who began to say that humanity is a single whole that has come to realize itself as such. He believed that the formation of the rule of law at the international level comes to the fore at this level. Due to this, according to the opinion of an outstanding sociologist, human dignity was to be established throughout the planet.
New milestones
Today, almost any student at the university’s political science or sociology department knows that Harold Lasswell used the content analysis method. Also, in the framework of the educational program, the fact is passed that it was thanks to this scientist that humanity received the concept of “garrison state”. This was first introduced in the 37th following a study of the ruling elite. The term proposed by the scientist implied such a political system in which professionals working with violence, using the most modern technological means, occupy a key position. As an opposite social system, the political scientist assumed a public in which business is governed by everything.
As can be concluded from the works of Harold Lasswell, except for extreme forms, the state can be formed in one of the intermediate types and types. For example, management processes can subordinate to the party propaganda apparatus. Party bureaucracy can run the show. Lasswell also suggested that the formation options be considered intermediate, in which the party’s power and the market’s monopoly are combined. According to Lasswell's calculations, it is possible to save society from the encroachment of the ruling elites, if we strengthen the importance of academia, and take such measures at the interstate level.
Value and importance
Studying the structure and functions of communication in society, Harold Lasswell wrote several extremely significant theoretical works both for his time and for our days. Many believe that among the sociologists of the last century it can rightfully be called one of the most productive. The total number of works that came out from under his pen is hundreds. In his creations, the scientist considered political, social life at different levels, from different points of view. Contemporaries recognized the incredibly wide range of interests of the scientist. He was engaged not only in general, but also in specialized disciplines; he was attracted to various fields of the humanities.
Modern scholars, evaluating what Harold Lasswell wrote about mass communication, believe that all the interests of this outstanding personality were subordinated to one strictly defined target strategy, namely the formation of such a scientific political system, due to which management decisions would become more rational. The scientist set himself the task of forming such a system that would give a good result with a variety of problems, would be practically applicable at all levels of consideration of the current situation. In the system developed by the scientist, science was supposed to limit the possibility of reflection and action, to determine acceptable guidelines and values. The main idea was to organize such a social development in which society would be stable and efficient.
Work and life
Any modern student of the political science, sociology department probably knows that Harold Lasswell used the method of content analysis to build the conclusions that are published in his numerous works. It is known that the scientist has repeatedly talked about the psychological family and proposed to consider society as a whole or a set of subjects close to each other - as if they were relatives. At the same time, little is known about the personal life of this scientist. In modern open sources, information about his parents is not mentioned. The scientist was never married, he had no heirs. This man, who worked in many ways to unite society into a single family, preferred to leave his own personal life in the shade. However, if we recall the historical context and the era in which the political scientist lived, we can agree that such a decision was fully justified and to some extent dictated by security issues.
The relevance and importance of research
Harold Lasswell’s books give modern scholars and researchers a good understanding of how social values and research relate to each other. From his works one can extract an understanding of how important science is to the ruling system and what role it plays in it. Lasswell considered the importance of power politics. Despite the fact that his works were written a long time ago, the calculations presented in them are relevant for our days. The legacy of this scientist allows methodologically providing modern sociologists and political scientists, simplifies the formulation and substantiation of questions.
Thanks to his models, Harold Lasswell went down in history as the author of psychoanalytic politics. To this day, the significance of the unconscious has been studied incompletely, and there is especially little information about the impact of this aspect on the political system and science. Psychoanalytic politics, political psychology are areas that have yet to be investigated in detail in order to have an idea of the deep-seated human reactions to crisis situations affecting the political system and social life. As our contemporaries admit, this scientist was one of the few who was engaged in empirical science, while fully understanding that only positive information on the mechanisms of society was sorely lacking. He formulated the need to justify and form guidelines and values that contribute to rationalization, which are universal and can be applied at any level of political activity. According to the scientist's calculations, it was necessary to invent such values that would work both locally and at the level of interethnic interaction, would not depend on the characteristics of a particular culture, would be relative, and therefore would be widely applicable.
Models and problems
The Harold Lasswell model is an idea of the mutual dependence and mutual influence of empiricism and theoretical calculations; cognitive object and subject engaged in cognition in philosophy. For politics, such a dyad is an ideology and the orientations and values inherent in a particular subject that are characteristic of the current moment in time. Studying the features of society, a scientist must simultaneously consider what is happening from two perspectives - a detached observer and a party leader. In the first case, his task is to determine what are the boundaries of political activity in the current case. The second point of view becomes accessible only to those who are guided in the mechanics of society.
As can be seen from modern scientific works, for a long time the books of Harold Lasswell in our country were not in demand, interest and respect from public circles and scientists. A detailed analysis allows you to notice hidden quotes, occasionally encountered generalized characteristics, as well as rare individual references. Several pages of the analysis of the works of an outstanding scientist are highlighted in the works of Shestopal. In addition, the calculations of Lasswell attracted the attention of Alyushin. All works in which the scientist in question is mentioned are devoted to a thematic analysis of his ideas. Many of our owners criticize the possibility of using models of psychoanalysts in relation to socialization. A political scientist is considered to have laid the foundation of the Freudian trend in politics. At the same time, he belonged to the number of behaviorists, which, it would seem, contradicts one another.
Philosophy, Politics and Sociology
The author of the Technique of Propaganda in the World War, Harold Lasswell, is considered by many of our compatriots more as a philosopher than a political scientist or sociologist. Others consider incorrect his logical calculations and cause-effect relationships, criticize the reconstructive approach. It is no secret that the scientist put a lot of effort, spent a huge amount of time in order to create a rigorous and coherent theory that would advise logic and be complete, aesthetic. At the same time, theoretical studies were aimed primarily at the formation of such schemes that would work in practice.
As can be concluded from the works translated into our language, Harold Lasswell used the comparison method to construct his logical chains. Scientists involved in the analysis of his works note that in the last century in the field of political science, the institutional approach was the predominant approach. The English and American traditions were marked by the individualistic development of such institutions that would be as close to ideal as possible, based on philosophy, historical background and jurisprudence. Lasswell, in particular, was the author of the doctrine, which had a number of similarities with others characteristic of the authors of his time. He was looking for a stable reference point from which to begin the transformation of the social world, and something outside this society should become the foundation.
Theory development
In many ways, the work of Harold Lasswell is based on materials previously published by Merriam. It is believed that this scientist determined the scientific interests of his follower. It was thanks to him that Lasswell became interested in analytical psychological research. In the works of Merriam, one can see the very basic principles that will then form the basis of the Chicago School of Sociology. In many ways, science will reflect Comte’s projects, which sought to transform the country's governance into a natural science process.
Harold Lasswell lived at a time when society was changing at an exceptionally fast pace, and increasingly powerful players regularly appeared on the world stage, whose interests came into conflict with each other. This influenced the Chicago school. Social changes were carried out due to forces that were described not through rationality, but by an unconscious impulse. For Lasswell, the main research object was a specific individual, a carrier of needs. Based on such conclusions, the scientist came to the conclusion that psychoanalyst is the most effective and accurate method applicable to the goals that he set for himself.
Science: different facets of the issue
Developing his ideas, Harold Lasswell considered progress in the form of such a fact, the reliability of which cannot be objectively shown and proved. He suggested measuring progress using social values. This is largely based on the work of Dewey. Lasswell reworked his concept, applied the theory of cultural relativity. He interpreted concepts, integrated ideas, based on the conclusions of Freud, Adler. It is noted that the famous political scientist successfully worked with concepts that were quite different from each other in applied and theoretical aspects, which did not prevent him from developing a unique integration approach.
Harold Lasswell paid particular attention to the work of Freud. In addition, Watson's work in the field of psychoanalysis, which predetermined the development of behaviorism, had a certain influence. Watson focused on the instantaneous variability of patterns that were obtained from experience, even if those are stable. But Freud considered the correction of such a pattern in the shortest possible time impossible. At the same time, Freud proposes to consider the person as a "black box". From the point of view of many researchers, it was this fact that became a turning point for Lasswell, who chose the side of the Austrian psychoanalyst. The metapsychological theory, which made it possible to analyze a personality from three sides, turned out to be topologically promising. In addition, the scientist considered mental processes and their inherent conflicts, taking into account the influence of individual experience and social environment. Probably, these calculations were the final reason for Lasswell to resort to Freud’s theory in order to build his vision of political science and processes in society under the influence of power.
