Apolice state describes astate whosegovernment institutions exercise an extreme level of control overcivil society andliberties. There is typically little or no distinction between the law and the exercise ofpolitical power by theexecutive, and the deployment ofinternal security andpolice forces play a heightened role ingovernance. A police state is a characteristic ofauthoritarian,totalitarian orilliberal regimes (contrary to aliberal democratic regime). Such governments are typicallyone-party states anddominant-party states, but police-state-level control may emerge inmulti-party systems as well.
Originally, a police state was a state regulated by acivil 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 ontheir 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 asecret police force that operates outside the boundaries normally imposed by aconstitutional state.[2]Robert von Mohl, who first introduced the rule of law to Germanjurisprudence, contrasted theRechtsstaat ("legal" or "constitutional" state) with the anti-aristocraticPolizeistaat ("police state").[3]
TheOxford 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 theAustrian Empire.[4] The German termPolizeistaat 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 afree state.[6]
Anelectronic 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]
Early forms of police states can be found in ancient China. During the rule ofKing 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 ofKing Henry VIII during theTudor period as a police state.[9][10] TheOprichnina established byTsar Ivan IV within theRussian Tsardom in 1565 functioned as a predecessor to the modern police state, featuring persecutions andautocratic rule.[11][12]
Nazi Germany emerged from an originallydemocratic government, yet gradually exerted more and more repressive controls over its people in the lead-up toWorld War II. In addition to theSS and theGestapo, 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 ofapartheid,South Africa maintained police-state attributes such as banning people and organizations, arrestingpolitical prisoners, maintaining segregated living communities and restricting movement and access.[14]
Augusto Pinochet'sChile 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]
TheRepublic of Cuba under President (and later right-wing dictator)Fulgencio Batista was anauthoritarian police state until his overthrow during theCuban Revolution in 1959 with the rise to power ofFidel Castro and foundation of aMarxist-Leninistrepublic.[17][18][19][20]
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Following the failedJuly 1958 Haitian coup d'état attempt to overthrow the president,Haiti descended into an autocratic and despoticfamily dictatorship under theHaitian Vodou black nationalistFrançois Duvalier (Papa Doc) and hisNational Unity Party. In 1959, Papa Doc ordered the creation ofTonton 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 unrestrainedstate terrorism. In the1964 Haitian constitutional referendum, he declared himself thepresident for life through a sham election. After Duvalier's death in 1971, his sonJean-Claude (Baby Doc) succeeded him as the next president for life, continuing the regime until thepopular uprising that had him overthrown in February 1986.[citation needed]
Ba'athist Syria under the dictatorship ofBashar al-Assad was described[by whom?] as the most "ruthless police state" in theArab world; with a tight system of restrictions on the movement of civilians, independent journalists and other unauthorized individuals. AlongsideNorth Korea andEritrea, it operated one of the strictestcensorship machines that regulated thetransfer of information. The Syrian security apparatus was established in the 1970s byHafez al-Assad, who ran amilitary dictatorship with theBa'ath party as its civilian cover to enforce the loyalty of Syrian populations to theAssad family. The dreadedMukhabarat 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 thearmy. Bashar and hisfamily are overthrown in December 2024 during theSyrian Revolution with theFall of the Assad regime and theFall of Damascus which had forced Bashar to leaveSyria forRussia and its capitalMoscow for a political asylum.[21][22]
The region of modern-dayKorea is claimed to have elements of a police state, from theJuche-styleSilla kingdom,[23] to the imposition of afascist police stateby the Japanese,[23] to thetotalitarian police state imposed and maintained by theKim family.[24] Paris-basedReporters Without Borders has ranked North Korea last or second last in their test of press freedom since thePress 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, theAKP-led government ofTurkey has been accused of turningTurkey into a police state.[27] Since the2013 removal of theMuslim Brotherhood-affiliated formerEgyptian presidentMohamed Morsi from office, the government ofEgypt has carried out extensive efforts to suppress certain forms of Islamism andreligious extremism (including the aforementioned Muslim Brotherhood),[28][better source needed] leading to accusations that it has effectively become a "revolutionary police state".[29][30]
TheUSSR was a police state.[31] Notable secret police forces in the former USSR were theCheka, theNKVD, and theKGB. Tools of state control used by the Soviet Union includecensorship,forced labour under theGulag system of labour camps,[32] anddeportation andgenocide of ethnic minorities such as in theHolodomor,NKVD Order No. 00485 against the Poles andDe-Cossackization.[33] Modern-dayRussia[34][35] andBelarus are often described as police states.[36][37]
Thedictatorship ofFerdinand Marcos from the 1970s to early 1980s in thePhilippines had many characteristics of a police state.[38][39]
Hong Kong is perceived[by whom?] to have implemented the tools of a police state after passing theNational Security legislation in 2020, following repeated attempts by People's Republic of China to erode the rule of law in the former British colony.[40][41][42][43][44]
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Fictional police states have featured in media ranging from novels to films to video games.George Orwell's novel1984 describes Britain under thetotalitarianOceanian regime that continuously invokes (and helps to cause) aperpetual war. This perpetual war is used as a pretext for subjecting the people tomass surveillance and invasive police searches. This novel was described byThe Encyclopedia of Police Science as "the definitive fictional treatment of a police state, which has also influenced contemporary usage of the term".[45]
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 allboyars (Russian nobility) under suspicion, but also the Russian princes [...].Oprichnina enabled the tsars to build the first police state in modem history.
[Ivan IV] established a political security force to run theOprichina[sic], whose task was to spy on his enemies and destroy them; hence Ivan may be regarded as the inventor of the police state.
