Harold D. Lasswell's legacy to mainstream political science: A neglected agenda

Abstract

Harold D. Lasswell's extensive and wide-ranging books and essays are extraordinarily rich sources of ideas, methods, and topics for the study of political behavior. Whether and how the legacy of his writings is used by contemporary political scientists and theorists is reported here by way of an investigation of references to his work appearing in mainstream political science journals (available through JSTOR) for the 17 years following the end of his academic career. We find that most references to Lasswell are superficial (perfunctory, suggestive, deferential), although a few are more substantial (critical, extending). We conclude that Lasswell's legacy is today undervalued and underused, to the discipline's detriment.