Liberty and Leviathan

The terror attacks in September 11, 2001 were the first large scope external attacks on the continental United States since British forces burned down Washington D.C. in 1814. Among the most far-reaching and most debated security measures following the attacks was the USA Patriot Act of 2001. This study demonstrates what some of the effects of this legislation have been. Increased and expanded surveillance through the Patriot Act has greatly infringed upon civil liberties as set forth in the Bill of Rights by shifting power to the Government through the rationale that the citizens must give up some of their individual liberties if the security of the nation is to be attained. In this way, the author argues that the traditional American social contract based on Lockean liberalism has had to give way for a Hobbesian social contract ideal in which national security is prioritized at any cost. The study shows that measures to strengthen security towards the outside might very well be weakening security on the inside, in particular if the people start to lose faith in their own democratic system and if the objects for protection, the nation and its ideas, are themselves threatened by those same measures.