ABSTRACT
The threat of mass-casualty attacks by terrorists is unique in American history and has encouraged a concerted effort to address these dangers. U.S. policymakers urgently need to create a homeland security strategy that focuses on limiting the damage of terrorism, rather than merely seeking to prevent catastrophic terrorism. In doing so, we raise some fundamentally important issues concerning the role of democratic institutions, the political process, and civil society in the United States. The parochial nature of Congress in setting spending priorities for homeland security does not always lead to damage-limitation measures desirable from a national standpoint. Measures to limit damage may impose dangerous distortions in the balances of power and responsibility among local, state, and federal authorities, and, at the federal level, between the executive and legislative branches, and within the legislative branch itself. Similarly, before and after attacks occur, damage limitation and emergency-response measures may produce perverse shifts in relations between government and the diverse groups in civil society.
