Police state

Last updated

A police state describes a state whose government institutions exercise an extreme level of control over civil society and liberties. There is typically little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive, and the deployment of internal security and police forces play a heightened role in governance. A police state is a characteristic of authoritarian, totalitarian or illiberal regimes (contrary to a liberal democratic regime). Such governments are typically one-party states and dominant-party states, but police-state-level control may emerge in multi-party systems as well.

Contents

Originally, a police state was a state regulated by a civil administration, but since the beginning of the 20th century it has "taken on an emotional and derogatory meaning" by describing an undesirable state of living characterized by the overbearing presence of civil authorities. [1] The inhabitants of a police state may experience restrictions on their mobility, or on their freedom to express or communicate political or other views, which are subject to police monitoring or enforcement. Political control may be exerted by means of a secret police force that operates outside the boundaries normally imposed by a constitutional state. [2] Robert von Mohl, who first introduced the rule of law to German jurisprudence, contrasted the Rechtsstaat ("legal" or "constitutional" state) with the anti-aristocratic Polizeistaat ("police state"). [3]

History of usage

The Oxford English Dictionary traces the phrase "police state" back to 1851, when it was used in reference to the use of a national police force to maintain order in the Austrian Empire. [4] The German term Polizeistaat came into English usage in the 1930s with reference to totalitarian governments that had begun to emerge in Europe. [5]

Because there are different political perspectives as to what an appropriate balance is between individual freedom and national security, there are no objective standards defining a police state.[ citation needed ] This concept can be viewed as a balance or scale. Along this spectrum, any law that has the effect of removing liberty is seen as moving towards a police state while any law that limits government oversight of the populace is seen as moving towards a free state. [6]

An electronic police state is one in which the government aggressively uses electronic technologies to record, organize, search and distribute forensic evidence against its citizens. [7] [8]

Demonstration in Amsterdam against the police state (politiestaat) in Portuguese Angola Demonstranten in Amsterdam tegen Portugees optreden in Angola, Bestanddeelnr 915-3366.jpg
Demonstration in Amsterdam against the police state (politiestaat) in Portuguese Angola
"No to police state" banner in Ukraine Baner NPD.JPG
"No to police state" banner in Ukraine

Early forms of police states can be found in ancient China. During the rule of King Li of Zhou in the 9th century BC, there was strict censorship, extensive state surveillance, and frequent executions of those who were perceived to be speaking against the regime. During this reign of terror, ordinary people did not dare to speak to each other on the street, and only made eye contacts with friends as a greeting, hence known as '道路以目'. Subsequently, during the short-lived Qin Dynasty, the police state became far more wide-reaching than its predecessors. In addition to strict censorship and the burning of all political and philosophical books, the state implemented strict control over its population by using collective executions and by disarming the population. Residents were grouped into units of 10 households, with weapons being strictly prohibited, and only one kitchen knife was allowed for 10 households. Spying and snitching was in common place, and failure to report any anti-regime activities was treated the same as if the person participated in it. If one person committed any crime against the regime, all 10 households would be executed.[ citation needed ]

Some have characterised the rule of King Henry VIII during the Tudor period as a police state. [9] [10] The Oprichnina established by Tsar Ivan IV within the Russian Tsardom in 1565 functioned as a predecessor to the modern police state, featuring persecutions and autocratic rule. [11] [12]

Nazi Germany emerged from an originally democratic government, yet gradually exerted more and more repressive controls over its people in the lead-up to World War II. In addition to the SS and the Gestapo, the Nazi police state used the judiciary to assert control over the population from the 1930s until the end of the war in 1945. [13]

During the period of apartheid, South Africa maintained police-state attributes such as banning people and organizations, arresting political prisoners, maintaining segregated living communities and restricting movement and access. [14]

Augusto Pinochet's Chile operated as a police state, [15] exhibiting "repression of public liberties, the elimination of political exchange, limiting freedom of speech, abolishing the right to strike, freezing wages". [16]

The Republic of Cuba under President (and later right-wing dictator) Fulgencio Batista was an authoritarian police state until his overthrow during the Cuban Revolution in 1959 with the rise to power of Fidel Castro and foundation of a Marxist-Leninist republic. [17] [18] [19] [20]

General Hafez al-Assad constructed a coup-proof police state in Ba'athist Syria to consolidate his dictatorship during the 1970s General Hafez al-Assad (1930-2000), the new president of Syria in November 1970.png
General Hafez al-Assad constructed a coup-proof police state in Ba'athist Syria to consolidate his dictatorship during the 1970s

Following the failed July 1958 Haitian coup d'état attempt to overthrow the president, Haiti descended into an autocratic and despotic family dictatorship under the Haitian Vodou black nationalist François Duvalier (Papa Doc) and his National Unity Party. In 1959, Papa Doc ordered the creation of Tonton Macoutes, a paramilitary force unit whom he authorized to commit systematic violence and human rights abuses to suppress political opposition, including an unknown number of murders, public executions, rapes, disappearances of and attacks on dissidents; an unrestrained state terrorism. In the 1964 Haitian constitutional referendum, he declared himself the president for life through a sham election. After Duvalier's death in 1971, his son Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) succeeded him as the next president for life, continuing the regime until the popular uprising that had him overthrown in February 1986.[ citation needed ]

Ba'athist Syria under the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad has been described[ by whom? ] as the most "ruthless police state" in the Arab world; with a tight system of restrictions on the movement of civilians, independent journalists and other unauthorized individuals. Alongside North Korea and Eritrea, it operates one of the strictest censorship machines that regulate the transfer of information. The Syrian security apparatus was established in the 1970s by Hafez al-Assad, who ran a military dictatorship with the Ba'ath party as its civilian cover to enforce the loyalty of Syrian populations to the Assad family. The dreaded Mukhabarat was given free hand to terrorise, torture or murder non-compliant civilians, while public activities of any organized opposition was curbed down with the raw firepower of the army. [21] [22]

The region of modern-day Korea is claimed to have elements of a police state, from the Juche -style Silla kingdom, [23] to the imposition of a fascist police state by the Japanese, [23] to the totalitarian police state imposed and maintained by the Kim family. [24] Paris-based Reporters Without Borders has ranked North Korea last or second last in their test of press freedom since the Press Freedom Index's introduction,[ when? ] stating that the ruling Kim family control all of the media. [25] [26]

In response to government proposals to enact new security measures to curb protests, the AKP-led government of Turkey has been accused of turning Turkey into a police state. [27] Since the 2013 removal of the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi from office, the government of Egypt has carried out extensive efforts to suppress certain forms of Islamism and religious extremism (including the aforementioned Muslim Brotherhood), [28] [ better source needed ] leading to accusations that it has effectively become a "revolutionary police state". [29] [30]

The USSR was described[ by whom? ] as the largest police state in history;[ citation needed ] modern-day Russia [31] [32] and Belarus are often described as police states. [33] [34]

The dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos from the 1970s to early 1980s in the Philippines has many characteristics of a police state. [35] [36]

Hong Kong is perceived[ by whom? ] to have implemented the tools of a police state after passing the National Security legislation in 2020, following repeated attempts by People's Republic of China to erode the rule of law in the former British colony. [37] [38] [39] [40] [41]


Fictional police states

Fictional police states have featured in media ranging from novels to films to video games. George Orwell's novel 1984 describes Britain under the totalitarian Oceanian regime that continuously invokes (and helps to cause) a perpetual war. This perpetual war is used as a pretext for subjecting the people to mass surveillance and invasive police searches. This novel was described by The Encyclopedia of Police Science as "the definitive fictional treatment of a police state, which has also influenced contemporary usage of the term". [42]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dictatorship</span> Form of government

A dictatorship is an autocratic form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, who hold governmental powers with few to no limitations. Politics in a dictatorship are controlled by a dictator, and they are facilitated through an inner circle of elites that includes advisers, generals, and other high-ranking officials. The dictator maintains control by influencing and appeasing the inner circle and repressing any opposition, which may include rival political parties, armed resistance, or disloyal members of the dictator's inner circle. Dictatorships can be formed by a military coup that overthrows the previous government through force or they can be formed by a self-coup in which elected leaders make their rule permanent. Dictatorships are authoritarian or totalitarian, and they can be classified as military dictatorships, one-party dictatorships, personalist dictatorships, or absolute monarchies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Totalitarianism</span> Extreme form of authoritarianism

Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and controls the public sphere and the private sphere of society. In the field of political science, totalitarianism is the extreme form of authoritarianism, wherein all socio-political power is held by a dictator, who also controls the national politics and the peoples of the nation with continual propaganda campaigns that are broadcast by state-controlled and by friendly private mass communications media.

Autocracy is a system of government in which absolute power is held by the ruler, known as an autocrat. It includes some forms of monarchy and all forms of dictatorship, while it is contrasted with democracy and feudalism. Various definitions of autocracy exist. They may restrict autocracy to cases where power is held by a single individual, or they may define autocracy in a way that includes a group of rulers who wield absolute power. The autocrat has total control over the exercise of civil liberties within the autocracy, choosing under what circumstances they may be exercised, if at all. Governments may also blend elements of autocracy and democracy, forming an anocracy. The concept of autocracy has been recognized in political philosophy since ancient times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedom House</span> American non-profit organization

Freedom House is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. It is best known for political advocacy surrounding issues of democracy, political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, with Wendell Willkie and Eleanor Roosevelt serving as its first honorary chairpersons. Most of the organization's funding comes from the U.S. State Department and other government grants. It also receives funds from various semi-public and private foundations, as well as individual contributions.

A military dictatorship, or a military regime, is a type of dictatorship in which power is held by one or more military officers. Military dictatorships are led by either a single military dictator, known as a strongman, or by a council of military officers known as a military junta. They are most often formed by military coups or by the empowerment of the military through a popular uprising in times of domestic unrest or instability. The military nominally seeks power to restore order or fight corruption, but the personal motivations of military officers will vary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Secret police</span> Intelligence agency which operates in secrecy

Secret police are police, intelligence, or security agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, ideological, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. They protect the political power of a dictator or regime and often operate outside the law to repress dissidents and weaken political opposition, frequently using violence. They may enjoy legal sanction to hold and charge suspects without ever identifying their organization.

<i>Apple Daily</i> Defunct Hong Kong–based newspaper

Apple Daily was a Chinese-language newspaper published in Hong Kong from 1995 to 2021, with a digital-only English edition launched in May, 2020. Founded by Jimmy Lai and part of Next Media, Apple Daily was known for its investigative reportages, sensational headlines, paparazzi photographs, and pro-democracy, anti-CCP editorial position. A sister publication of the same name was published in Taiwan under a joint venture between Next Digital and other Taiwanese companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Endowment for Democracy</span> US quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization in the United States founded in 1983 with the stated aim of advancing democracy worldwide, by promoting political and economic institutions, such as political groups, trade unions, free markets, and business groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass surveillance</span> Intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population

Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizations, but it may also be carried out by corporations. Depending on each nation's laws and judicial systems, the legality of and the permission required to engage in mass surveillance varies. It is the single most indicative distinguishing trait of totalitarian regimes. It is often distinguished from targeted surveillance.

Political repression is the act of a state entity controlling a citizenry by force for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing the citizenry's ability to take part in the political life of a society, thereby reducing their standing among their fellow citizens. Repression tactics target the citizenry who are most likely to challenge the political ideology of the state in order for the government to remain in control. In autocracies, the use of political repression is to prevent anti-regime support and mobilization. It is often manifested through policies such as human rights violations, surveillance abuse, police brutality, imprisonment, involuntary settlement, stripping of citizen's rights, lustration, and violent action or terror such as the murder, summary executions, torture, forced disappearance, and other extrajudicial punishment of political activists, dissidents, or general population. Direct repression tactics are those targeting specific actors who become aware of the harm done to them while covert tactics rely on the threat of citizenry being caught. The effectiveness of the tactics differ: covert repression tactics cause dissidents to use less detectable opposition tactics while direct repression allows citizenry to witness and react to the repression. Political repression can also be reinforced by means outside of written policy, such as by public and private media ownership and by self-censorship within the public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights in Hong Kong</span>

Human rights protection is enshrined in the Basic Law and its Bill of Rights Ordinance (Cap.383). By virtue of the Bill of Rights Ordinance and Basic Law Article 39, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is put into effect in Hong Kong. Any local legislation that is inconsistent with the Basic Law can be set aside by the courts. This does not apply to national legislation that applies to Hong Kong, such as the National Security Law, even if it is inconsistent with the Bills of Rights Ordinance, ICCPR, or the Basic Law.

In political science, the waves of democracy or waves of democratization are major surges of democracy that have occurred in history. Although the term appears at least as early as 1887, it was popularized by Samuel P. Huntington, a political scientist at Harvard University, in his article published in the Journal of Democracy and further expounded in his 1991 book, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century. Democratization waves have been linked to sudden shifts in the distribution of power among the great powers, which created openings and incentives to introduce sweeping domestic reforms.

The national security of China is the coordination of a variety of organizations, including law enforcement, military, paramilitary, governmental, and intelligence agencies that aim to ensure China's national security. China considers three factors in its national security: national sovereignty, security, and development interests.

Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political status quo, and reductions in democracy, separation of powers, civil liberties, and the rule of law. Political scientists have created many typologies describing variations of authoritarian forms of government. Authoritarian regimes may be either autocratic or oligarchic and may be based upon the rule of a party or the military. States that have a blurred boundary between democracy and authoritarianism have some times been characterized as "hybrid democracies", "hybrid regimes" or "competitive authoritarian" states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet censorship in South Korea</span>

Internet censorship in South Korea is prevalent, and contains some unique elements such as the blocking of pro-North Korea websites, and to a lesser extent, Japanese websites, which led to it being categorized as "pervasive" in the conflict/security area by OpenNet Initiative. South Korea is also one of the few developed countries where pornography is largely illegal, with the exception of social media websites which are a common source of legal pornography in the country. Any and all material deemed "harmful" or subversive by the state is censored. The country also has a "cyber defamation law", which allow the police to crack down on comments deemed "hateful" without any reports from victims, with citizens being sentenced for such offenses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comparison of Nazism and Stalinism</span>

Various historians and other authors have carried out a comparison of Nazism and Stalinism, with particular consideration to the similarities and differences between the two ideologies and political systems, the relationship between the two regimes, and why both came to prominence simultaneously. During the 20th century, comparisons of Nazism and Stalinism were made on totalitarianism, ideology, and personality cult. Both regimes were seen in contrast to the liberal democratic Western world, emphasising the similarities between the two.

A hybrid regime is a type of political system often created as a result of an incomplete democratic transition from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one. Hybrid regimes are categorized as having a combination of autocratic features with democratic ones and can simultaneously hold political repressions and regular elections. Hybrid regimes are commonly found in developing countries with abundant natural resources such as petro-states. Although these regimes experience civil unrest, they may be relatively stable and tenacious for decades at a time. There has been a rise in hybrid regimes since the end of the Cold War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass surveillance in China</span>

Mass surveillance in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is the network of monitoring systems used by the Chinese central government to monitor Chinese citizens. It is primarily conducted through the government, although corporate surveillance in connection with the Chinese government has been reported to occur. China monitors its citizens through Internet surveillance, camera surveillance, and through other digital technologies. It has become increasingly widespread and grown in sophistication under General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Xi Jinping's administration.

References

  1. ↑ Tipton, Elise K. (17 December 2013). The Japanese Police State: Tokko in Interwar Japan. A&C Black. pp. 14–. ISBN   9781780939742 . Retrieved 5 September 2014.
  2. ↑ A Dictionary of World History, Market House Books, Oxford University Press, 2000.
  3. ↑ The Police State, Chapman, B., Government and Opposition, Vol.3:4, 428–440, (2007). Accessible online at , retrieved 15 August 2008.
  4. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, Third edition, January 2009; online version November 2010. ; accessed 19 January 2011. [ dead link ]
  5. ↑ Dubber, Markus Dirk; Valverde, Mariana (2006). The New Police Science: The Police Power in Domestic and International Governance. Stanford University Press. ISBN   978-0-8047-5392-0.
  6. ↑ Police State (Key Concepts in Political Science), Brian Chapman, Macmillan, 1971.
  7. ↑ "Police Checkpoints on the Information Highway", Computer underground Digest, Volume 6 : Issue 72 (14 August 1994), ISSN   1066-632X, "The so-called 'electronic frontier' is quickly turning into an electronic police state."
  8. ↑ The Electronic Police State: 2008 National Rankings, by Jonathan Logan, Cryptohippie USA.
  9. ↑ "Henry VIII: Henry the horrible". The Independent. 12 October 2003.
  10. ↑ "Human truth in the Tudor police state". Financial Times. 28 September 2006.
  11. ↑ Gella, Aleksander (1989). Development of Class Structure in Eastern Europe: Poland and Her Southern Neighbors. SUNY Press. p. 217. ISBN   9780887068331 . Retrieved 20 August 2016. Oprichnina was originally a band of faithful servants organized by Ivan IV into a police force; they were used by the tsar to crush not only all boyars (Russian nobility) under suspicion, but also the Russian princes [...]. Oprichnina enabled the tsars to build the first police state in modem history.
  12. ↑ Wilson, Colin (1964). Rasputin and the Fall of the Romanovs . New York, Farrar, Straus. p.  60 . Retrieved 20 August 2016. [Ivan IV] established a political security force to run the Oprichina[sic], whose task was to spy on his enemies and destroy them; hence Ivan may be regarded as the inventor of the police state.
  13. ↑ "SS Police State". U.S. Holocaust Museum. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  14. ↑ Cooper, Frederick (10 October 2002). Africa Since 1940: The Past of the Present. Cambridge University Press. pp. 149–. ISBN   9780521776004 . Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  15. ↑ Zwier, Paul J. (22 April 2013). Principled Negotiation and Mediation in the International Arena: Talking with Evil. Cambridge University Press. pp. 235–. ISBN   9781107026872 . Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  16. ↑ Casanova, Pablo González (1 January 1993). Latin America Today. United Nations University Press. pp. 233–. ISBN   9789280808193 . Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  17. ↑ Candelaria, Cordelia; García, Peter J.; Aldama, Arturo J. (2004). Encyclopedia of Latino Popular Culture. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 120–. ISBN   9780313332104 . Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  18. ↑ Bailey, Helen Miller; Cruz, Frank H. (1 January 1972). The Latin Americans: Past and Present. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN   9780395133736 . Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  19. ↑ Novas, Himilce (27 November 2007). Everything You Need to Know About Latino History: 2008 Edition. Penguin Group US. pp. 225–. ISBN   9781101213537 . Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  20. ↑ Paul H. Lewis. Authoritarian regimes in Latin America.
  21. ↑ Bowen, Jeremy (2013). "Prologue: Before the Spring". The Arab Uprisings: The People Want the Fall of the Regime. Simon & Schuster. pp. 14, 15, 51, 118, 210–214, 336, 341. ISBN   9781471129827.
  22. ↑ "RSF". RSF: Reporters Without Borders. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  23. 1 2 Becker, Jasper (1 May 2005). Rogue Regime : Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea . Oxford University Press. pp.  74–. ISBN   9780198038108 . Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  24. ↑ Hixson, Walter L. (2008). The Myth of American Diplomacy: National Identity and U.S. Foreign Policy. Yale University Press. pp. 179–. ISBN   9780300150131 . Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  25. ↑ "North Korea Rated World's Worst Violator of Press Freedom". U.S. Department of State. 25 October 2006. Retrieved 23 July 2008.
  26. ↑ "North Korea still one of the world's most repressive media environments".
  27. ↑ "Critics: Proposed Legislation Turns Turkey Into Police State". VOA. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  28. ↑ "Egypt: The politics of reforming al-Azhar".
  29. ↑ Khorshid, Sara (16 November 2014). "Egypt's New Police State". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  30. ↑ "Egypt: The Revolutionary Police State". Politico. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  31. ↑ Taylor, Brian D. (18 May 2014). "From Police State to Police State? Legacies and Law Enforcement in Russia". In Beissinger, Mark; Kotkin, Stephen (eds.). Historical Legacies of Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe. Cambridge University Press. pp. 128–151. doi:10.1017/CBO9781107286191.007. ISBN   9781107054172.
  32. ↑ "Russia's police state showed its real face in latest protest crackdown". New Eastern Europe - A bimonthly news magazine dedicated to Central and Eastern European affairs. 11 April 2021.
  33. ↑ "Belarus: a police state in action". OSW Centre for Eastern Studies. 16 November 2020.
  34. ↑ Higgins, Andrew; Santora, Marc (16 November 2021). "Cold and Marooned in a Police State as Desperation Takes Hold". The New York Times.
  35. ↑ "Marcos Orders Crackdown On Critics of Martial Law - The Washington Post". The Washington Post .
  36. ↑ Karnow, Stanley (19 March 1989). "REAGAN AND THE PHILIPPINES: Setting Marcos Adrift". The New York Times.
  37. ↑ Vines, Stephen (3 July 2021). "What's wrong with Hong Kong becoming a police state?". Hong Kong Free Press HKFP. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  38. ↑ Welle (www.dw.com), Deutsche. "Amnesty: Hong Kong on course to becoming 'police state' | DW | 30.06.2021". DW.COM. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  39. ↑ Rogers, Benedict (30 May 2022). "Hong Kong's thuggish new leader epitomises its descent into a police state". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  40. ↑ "Opinion: Make no mistake – this new security law turns Hong Kong into a Chinese police state". The Independent. 1 July 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  41. ↑ "Hong Kong's New Police State". thediplomat.com. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  42. ↑ Greene, Jack R. (2007). The Encyclopedia of Police Science. Vol. 1 (3 ed.). Taylor & Francis. ISBN   978-0-415-97000-6.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.