> recent. Until WWII, the US had an insignificant
> military establishment unless it was actually at war
> (in the Civil War and WWI.) It's the cold war and the
> national security state that created this militarized
> social model. Moreover, the US model of war itself is
> part of the problem. Going back to "unconditional
> surrender" Grant in the civil war, the US has been
Theda Skocpol (_Protecting Mother and Soldiers_ ) argues otherwise. She claims that while most European states adopted social welfare policies in response to social problems created by industrialization, the US created a massive social welfare system to benefit the real and claimed victims of the Civil War (mostly the northerners). These significant benefits were distributed mostly to Northerners and played an important role in political patronage. Skocpol argues that the difference between US and Europe in the early implementation of social welfare system is attributed to the following factors: (i) weakness of working class movement, (ii) universal male suffrage that bonded males and females across class divisions (in Europe suffrage was determined by social class), (iii) the strength of political machines which used federal money to buy local support.
This argument provides support to the claim that even welfare policies were militarized.
Another thought - there something Foucauldian in US militarism. Foucault argues that as the effectiveness of social coercion improved thanks to developmens in surveillance and behavior modification techniques - the "need" for the spectacle in the punishment waned. In that sense, spectacular punishment is akin to magic rituals used where technology did not allow sufficient control (cf. Bronislaw Malinowski's account of Triobriand islanders). In the same vein, the military spectacle served a similar purpose in Europe - where resitance to draft was quite strong among peasantry who served as the cannon fodder. On the other hand, US has been in the state of permanent war since its inception, against the natives, against the British, against Mexicans, Spanish, Philippinos, then agains Europeans, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese etc. What is more, military often provided the only form of social structure available in this lawless hodge podge of opportunistic immigrants. As a result, militarism has been thoroughly incorporated to the US culture (cf. the citizen-soldier metaphor) to the point that military spectacle, marching in goose steps, conscpicuous display or armaments etc. became superfluous and unnecessary.
Wojtek