Abstract
The American political scientist, Harold D. Lasswell, made important contributions to the futures field. As early as 1935, he proposed the ‘developmental construct’ as a tool of ‘developmental analysis’, a method for the study of the future. He illustrated it by discussing the coming ‘garrison state’. Developmental analysis includes the investigation of goals and values, trends, conditions, projections and alternatives. It involves study of the inevitably future-oriented process of decision making, incorporating disciplined and careful analysis of facts, expectations and values. Many of Lasswell's insights regarding the importance of a futures orientation have been incorporated into the policy sciences, of which Lasswell was a founder and early advocate. In this article, the author describes a few of the contributions that Lasswell made to the futures field, hoping that it will of use to today's futurists and that it will encourage others to explore his work and undertake the definitive analysis that it deserves.
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