The term police state is a term for a state in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic and political life of the population, especially by means of a secret police force which operates outside the boundaries normally imposed by a constitutional republic. A police state typically exhibits elements of totalitarianism and social control, and there is usually little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive. This article is about secret police as organizations. ... Totalitarianism is a term employed by some political scientists, especially those in the field of comparative politics, to describe modern regimes in which the state regulates nearly every aspect of public and private behavior. ... Social control refers to social mechanisms that regulate individual and group behavior, in terms of greater sanctions and rewards. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...

Classification of a police state

The classification of a country or regime as a police state is usually contested and debated. Because of the pejorative connotation of the term, it is rare that a country will self-identify as a police state. The classification is often established by an internal whistleblower or an external critic or activist group. The use of the term is motivated as a response to the laws, policies and actions of that regime, and is often used pejoratively to describe the regime's concept of the social contract, human rights, and similar matters. Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change. ... John Lockes writings on the Social Contract were particularly influential among the American Founding Fathers. ...

Police states are authoritarian, and are often dictatorships.

The South African apartheid system is generally considered to have been a police state despite having been nominally a democracy (albeit with the native, Black African majority population excluded from the democracy). Nazi Germany, a dictatorship, was, at least initially, brought into being through a nominal democracy. A segregated beach in South Africa, 1982. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...

Enlightened absolutism

Under the political model of enlightened absolutism, the ruler is the "highest servant of the state" and exercises absolute power to provide for the general welfare of the population. This model of government proposes that all the power of the state must be directed toward this end, and rejects codified, statutory constraints upon the ruler's absolute power. Thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes supported this type of absolutist government. Enlightened absolutism (also known as benevolent or enlightened despotism) is a form of despotism in which rulers were influenced by the Enlightenment. ... Hobbes redirects here. ...

As the enlightened, absolute ruler is said to be charged with the public good, and implicitly infallible by right of appointment, even critical, loyal opposition to the ruler's party is a crime against the state. The concept of loyal opposition is incompatible with these politics. As public dissent is forbidden, it inevitably becomes secret, which, in turn, is countered with political repression via a secret police. Loyal opposition is the concept that one can be opposed to the actions of the government or ruling party of the day without being opposed to the constitution of the political system. ... Dissent is a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to an idea (eg. ... Political repression is the oppression or persecution of an individual or group for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing their ability to take part in the political life of society. ...

Liberal democracy, which emphasizes the rule of law, focuses on the police state's not being subject to law. Robert von Mohl, who first introduced the rule of law to German jurisprudence, contrasted the Rechtsstaat ("legal" or "constitutional" state) with the aristocratic Polizeistaat ("police state"). Liberal democracy is a form of government. ... Robert von Mohl (August 17, 1799 in Stuttgart - November 4, 1875 in Berlin was a German jurist. ... For the jurisprudence of courts, see Case law. ... Rechtsstaat is a term borrowed from German jurisprudence which literally means a law-based state or constitutional state. It is a state in which the exercise of governmental power is constrained by the law, and is often tied to the Anglo-American concept of the rule of law. ... Aristocrat redirects here. ...

Idiomatic expansion of the term

In times of national emergency or war, the balance which may usually exist between freedom and national security often tips in favour of security. This shift may lead to allegations that the nation in question has become, or is becoming, a police state. For other uses, see State of emergency (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see War (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Freedom. ... Security measures taken to protect the Houses of Parliament in London, England. ...

Because there are different political perspectives as to what an appropriate balance is between individual freedom and national security, there are no definitive objective standards to determine whether the term "police state" applies to a particular nation at any given point in time. Thus, it is difficult to evaluate objectively the truth of allegations that a nation is, or is becoming, a police state. One way to view the concept of the police state and the free state is through the medium of a seesaw^{[citation needed]}, where any law focused on removing liberty is seen as moving toward a police state, and any law which limits government oversight is seen as moving toward a Free state. Modern seesaws have springs for safer play. ... Free state is a term occasionally used in the official titles of some states. ...

War is often portrayed in fiction as a perfect precursor to establishing a police state, as citizens are more dependent on their government and the police for safety than usual (see below).

Fictional police states

George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four describes Britain under a socialist totalitarian régime that continuously invokes (and helps to create) a perpetual war. This perpetual war is used as a pretext for subjecting the people to mass surveillance and invasive police searches. The state destroys not only the literal freedom after action and thought meant by expressions like "freedom of thought", but also literal freedom of thought. George Orwell is the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903[1][2] – 21 January 1950) who was an English writer and journalist well-noted as a novelist, critic, and commentator on politics and culture. ... This article is about the Orwell novel. ... Totalitarianism is a term employed by some political scientists, especially those in the field of comparative politics, to describe modern regimes in which the state regulates nearly every aspect of public and private behavior. ... Perpetual war is a war with no clear ending conditions. ... A closed-circuit television camera. ...

Yevgeny Zamyatin's novel We depicts a dystopia in which the walls are made out of glass, the only means of getting information is the state newspaper, and imaginations are forcibly removed from people. Yevgeny Zamyatin by Boris Kustodiev (1923) Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin (Евге́ний Ива́нович Замя́тин sometimes translated into English as Eugene Zamyatin) (February 1, 1884 – March 10, 1937) was a Russian author, most famous for his novel We, a story of dystopian future which influenced George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxleys Brave... We (Russian: )[1] is a dystopian novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin completed in 1921. ...

Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451 portrays the United States in the future as a police state which enforces extreme censorship and suppresses critical thought. Ray Douglas Bradbury (born August 22, 1920) is an American literary, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer best known for The Martian Chronicles, a 1950 book which has been described both as a short story collection and a novel, and his 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451. ... This article is about the novel. ...

Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here satirically details the rise of fascism in the 1930s United States. Sinclair Lewis Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 — January 10, 1951) was an American novelist and playwright. ... Poster for a stage adaptation of It Cant Happen Here, ca. ...

See also

• Dictatorship
• List of forms of government
• Military dictatorship
• Martial Law, the suspension of normal civil law during periods of emergency
• Nanny state
• Night watchman state
• Rechtsstaat
• religious police

Forms of government Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box:      A dictatorship is an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by a dictator. ... This article lists forms of government and political systems, according to a series of different ways of categorising them. ... A military dictatorship is a form of government wherein the political power resides with the military; it is similar but not identical to a stratocracy, a state ruled directly by the military. ... For other uses, see Martial law (disambiguation). ... Nanny state is a derogatory term that refers to state protectionism, economic interventionism, or regulatory policies, and the perception that these policies are becoming institutionalized as common practice. ... A night watchman state, or a minimal state, is a form of government in political philosophy where the governments responsibilities are so minimal they cannot be reduced much further without becoming a form of anarchy. ... Rechtsstaat is a term borrowed from German jurisprudence which literally means a law-based state or constitutional state. It is a state in which the exercise of governmental power is constrained by the law, and is often tied to the Anglo-American concept of the rule of law. ... The Mutaween (مطوعين in Arabic) (variant English spellings: mutawwain, muttawa, mutawallees, mutawa’ah, mutawi’) are the government-authorized or -recognized religious police (or clerical police or public order police) within Islamist theocracies which adhere to varied interpretations of Sharia Law in which governments are either directly controlled by or significantly under...

External links

• Amnesty international, 2005; — annual report on human rights violations.
• Council for Secular Humanism article describing attributes of police states
• David Mery, September 22, 2005; The Guardian — example of "police state" defined in a modern context.