American Democracy In Peril Analysis

William Hudson's book American Democracy in Peril, the seventh challenge to America's democracy is the “national security state”. The national security state started after World War II. With the fear of communism spreading the a permanent military was needed. There were two major factors for the new permanent military which were; it would prevent another comparable threat and increasing the complexity of military technology. This brought about the National Security Act of 1947 and this act created the core of the national security state. Hudson believes there are four dangers of the national security state that affect democracy. Secrecy, centralization, repression, and distortion are those four dangers of the national security state that affect democracy.

Secrecy is a practice where certain important information about different policies is kept from the public.It is dangerous to democracy because the government is supposed to be open to their constituents.Constituents cannot influence policy unless they know all the facts about the policy. The makes citizens feel as if the government is being sneaky and hiding dangerous facts. Centralization is only a few government officials, most the president and his advisors, make decisions on foreign and military policy.Centralization hurts democracy due to the …show more content…
This two big and rich industry are dangerous to democracy because they have the power to influence government policy and have because they have the money. The two industries are so big they make it hard for common citizens' voices to be heard. Distortion talks about professional soldiers. Professional soldiers are very harmful to democracy than conscript soldiers. The professional soldiers are said to be more loyal to their generals than the country. This has led to Americans always feeling as if American is in a state of