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{{Short description|State that exercises extreme control over civil society and liberties}}{{distinguish|State police}}{{Other uses}}{{use dmy dates|date=June 2016}}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, but police-state-level control may emerge in multi-party systems as well.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.BOOK, Tipton, Elise K., The Japanese Police State: Tokko in Interwar Japan,weblink 5 September 2014, 17 December 2013, A&C Black, 9781780939742, 14–, 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.A Dictionary of World History, Market House Books, Oxford University Press, 2000. 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").The Police State, Chapman, B., Government and Opposition, Vol.3:4, 428–440, (2007). Accessible online at weblink" title="https:/-/archive.today/20121208162207weblink">weblink, retrieved 15 August 2008.

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.Oxford English Dictionary, Third edition, January 2009; online version November 2010. weblink; accessed 19 January 2011. {{dead link|date=December 2015}} The German term Polizeistaat came into English usage in the 1930s with reference to totalitarian governments that had begun to emerge in Europe.BOOK, Dubber, Markus Dirk,weblink The New Police Science: The Police Power in Domestic and International Governance, Valverde, Mariana, 2006, Stanford University Press, 978-0-8047-5392-0, en, 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|date=February 2019}} 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.Police State (Key Concepts in Political Science), Brian Chapman, Macmillan, 1971.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."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."The Electronic Police State: 2008 National Rankings, by Jonathan Logan, Cryptohippie USA.

Examples of states with related attributes

File:Demonstranten in Amsterdam tegen Portugees optreden in Angola, Bestanddeelnr 915-3366.jpg|thumb|Demonstration in Amsterdam against the police state (politiestaat) in Portuguese AngolaPortuguese AngolaFile:Baner NPD.JPG|thumb|"No to police state" banner in UkraineUkraineEarly 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.Some have characterised the rule of King Henry VIII during the Tudor period as a police state.NEWS, Henry VIII: Henry the horrible,weblink The Independent, 12 October 2003, NEWS, Human truth in the Tudor police state,weblink Financial Times, 28 September 2006, 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.BOOK, Gella, Aleksander, Development of Class Structure in Eastern Europe: Poland and Her Southern Neighbors,weblink SUNY Press, 1989, 217, 9780887068331, 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., BOOK, Wilson, Colin, Colin Wilson, Rasputin and the Fall of the Romanovs,weblink registration, 1964, 60, New York, Farrar, Straus, 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., The USSR was described as the largest police state in history; modern-day RussiaBOOK,weblink Historical Legacies of Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe, Brian D., Taylor, From Police State to Police State? Legacies and Law Enforcement in Russia, Mark, Beissinger, Stephen, Kotkin, 18 May 2014, Cambridge University Press, 128–151, 10.1017/CBO9781107286191.007, 9781107054172, WEB,weblink Russia's police state showed its real face in latest protest crackdown, 11 April 2021, New Eastern Europe - A bimonthly news magazine dedicated to Central and Eastern European affairs, and Belarus are often described as police states.WEB,weblink Belarus: a police state in action, 16 November 2020, OSW Centre for Eastern Studies, NEWS,weblink Cold and Marooned in a Police State as Desperation Takes Hold, Andrew, Higgins, Marc, Santora, The New York Times, 16 November 2021, 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.WEB,weblink SS Police State, U.S. Holocaust Museum, 22 March 2014, 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.BOOK, Cooper, Frederick, Africa Since 1940: The Past of the Present,weblink 22 March 2014, 10 October 2002, Cambridge University Press, 9780521776004, 149–, Augusto Pinochet's Chile operated as a police state,BOOK, Zwier, Paul J., Principled Negotiation and Mediation in the International Arena: Talking with Evil,weblink 22 March 2014, 22 April 2013, Cambridge University Press, 9781107026872, 235–, exhibiting "repression of public liberties, the elimination of political exchange, limiting freedom of speech, abolishing the right to strike, freezing wages".BOOK, Casanova, Pablo González, Latin America Today,weblink 22 March 2014, 1 January 1993, United Nations University Press, 9789280808193, 233–, 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.BOOK, Candelaria, Cordelia, Cordelia Candelaria, García, Peter J., Aldama, Arturo J., Encyclopedia of Latino Popular Culture,weblink 27 March 2014, 2004, Greenwood Publishing Group, 9780313332104, 120–, BOOK, Bailey, Helen Miller, Cruz, Frank H., The Latin Americans: Past and Present,weblink 27 March 2014, 1 January 1972, Houghton Mifflin, 9780395133736, BOOK, Novas, Himilce, Everything You Need to Know About Latino History: 2008 Edition,weblink 27 March 2014, 27 November 2007, Penguin Group US, 9781101213537, 225–, Paul H. Lewis. Authoritarian regimes in Latin America.File:General Hafez al-Assad (1930-2000), the new president of Syria in November 1970.png|thumb|General Hafez al-Assad constructed a coup-proof police state in Ba'athist SyriaBa'athist SyriaFollowing 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.Ba'athist Syria under the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad has been described 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 Ba'ath party as its civilian cover to enforce the loyalty of Syrian populations to 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.BOOK, Bowen, Jeremy, The Arab Uprisings: The People Want the Fall of the Regime, Simon & Schuster, 2013, 9781471129827, 14, 15, 51, 118, 210–214, 336, 341, Prologue: Before the Spring, WEB, RSF,weblink 7 May 2020, RSF: Reporters Without Borders, The region of modern-day North Korea is claimed to have elements of a police state, from the Juche-style Silla kingdom, to the imposition of a fascist police state by the Japanese,BOOK, Becker, Jasper, Rogue Regime : Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea,weblink registration, 22 March 2014, 1 May 2005, Oxford University Press, 9780198038108, 74–, to the totalitarian police state imposed and maintained by the Kim family.BOOK, Hixson, Walter L., The Myth of American Diplomacy: National Identity and U.S. Foreign Policy,weblink 22 March 2014, 2008, Yale University Press, 9780300150131, 179–, 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|date=August 2016}} stating that the ruling Kim family control all of the media.WEB, North Korea Rated World's Worst Violator of Press Freedom,weblink U.S. Department of State, 25 October 2006, 23 July 2008, WEB,weblink North Korea still one of the world's most repressive media environments, 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.NEWS,weblink Critics: Proposed Legislation Turns Turkey Into Police State, VOA, 7 June 2015, 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),WEB,weblink Egypt: The politics of reforming al-Azhar, {{better source needed|date=November 2023}} leading to accusations that it has effectively become a "revolutionary police state".NEWS,weblink Egypt's New Police State, The New York Times, 16 November 2014, 20 May 2016, Khorshid, Sara, NEWS,weblink Egypt: The Revolutionary Police State, Politico, 20 May 2016, The dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos from the 1970s to early 1980s in the Philippines has many characteristics of a police state.NEWS,weblink Marcos Orders Crackdown On Critics of Martial Law - The Washington Post, The Washington Post, NEWS,weblink REAGAN AND THE PHILIPPINES: Setting Marcos Adrift, The New York Times, 19 March 1989, Karnow, Stanley, Hong Kong is perceived 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.WEB, Vines, Stephen, 2021-07-03, What's wrong with Hong Kong becoming a police state?,weblink 2022-06-02, Hong Kong Free Press HKFP, en-GB, WEB, Welle (www.dw.com), Deutsche, Amnesty: Hong Kong on course to becoming 'police state' {{!, DW {{!}} 30.06.2021 |url=https://www.dw.com/en/amnesty-hong-kong-on-course-to-becoming-police-state/a-58104554 |access-date=2022-06-02 |website=DW.COM |language=en-GB}}NEWS, Rogers, Benedict, 2022-05-30, Hong Kong's thuggish new leader epitomises its descent into a police state, en-GB, The Telegraph,weblink 2022-06-02, 0307-1235, WEB, 2020-07-01, Opinion: Make no mistake – this new security law turns Hong Kong into a Chinese police state,weblink 2022-06-02, The Independent, en, WEB, Hong Kong's New Police State,weblink 2022-06-02, thediplomat.com, en-US,

Fictional police states

{{expand section|more examples|date=October 2023}}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".BOOK, Greene, Jack R.,weblink The Encyclopedia of Police Science, 3, 1, 2007, Taylor & Francis, 978-0-415-97000-6,

See also

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

• Arbitrary arrest and detention
• Counterintelligence state
• Dictatorship
• État légal (French)
• Government
• Kangaroo court
• Legal abuse
• List of countries by incarceration rate
• Martial law, the suspension of normal civil law during periods of emergency
• Mass surveillance
• Military dictatorship
• Nanny state
• Rechtsstaat (German)
• Secret police
• State terrorism
• Surveillance state

{{div col end}}

References

{{reflist|30em}}

External links

• Amnesty International, 2005—annual report on human rights violations
• Council for Secular Humanism article describing attributes of police states
• David Mery (22 September 2005) "Suspicious behaviour on the tube". The Guardian—example of "police state" defined in a modern context
• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20200302044534weblink">Police State USA—a continuously updated multi-contributor site with news articles that document police brutality in the United States
• The Rutherford Institute "John W. Whitehead to Speak to Senior Statesmen of Virginia on the Emerging American Police State and What 2014 Holds in Store for Our Freedoms"
• Our Ever-Deadlier Police State. Chris Hedges on the police state in the United States.

{{Secret police of Communist Europe}}{{Authoritarian types of rule}}{{Authority control}}