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==Fictional police states==
==Fictional police states==
{{main|List of fictional police states}}
{{listcruft|date=September 2012}}
Police states have been featured in a number of fictional media ranging from novels to films to video games.
The [[video game]] [[Half Life 2]] features an alien empire called the [[Combine (Half-Life)|Combine]] controlling Earth, and ruling [[City 17]] as a police state.

[[George Orwell]]'s novel ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' describes Britain under a [[totalitarianism|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.

''[[Metropolis (film)|Metropolis]]'' is a 1927 silent science fiction film directed by Fritz Lang and written by Lang and Thea von Harbou. Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia.

[[Yevgeny Zamyatin]]'s novel ''[[We (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.

[[Sinclair Lewis]]' ''[[It Can't Happen Here]]'' satirically details the rise of fascism in the 1930s United States.

The ten-part graphic novel ''[[V for Vendetta]]'', by [[Alan Moore]] and [[David Lloyd (comics)|David Lloyd]], tells the story of a masked [[anarchist]]'s efforts to subvert the fascist [[Norsefire|Norsefire Party]] that has gained control of the [[United Kingdom]]. (See also the [[V for Vendetta (film)|film]] of the same name.)

''[[Sleeper (1973 film)|Sleeper]]'' (1973) is a futuristic science fiction comedy film, written by, directed by, and starring Woody Allen. It is loosely based on the H. G. Wells' novel ''The Sleeper Awakes''. 22nd-century America seems to be a police state ruled by a dictator, about to implement a secret plan known as the "Aries Project."

''[[Zardoz]]'' is a 1974 science fiction film written, produced, and directed by John Boorman. In the year AD 2293, a post-apocalypse Earth is inhabited mostly by the "Brutals", who are ruled by the "Eternals" who use other "Brutals" called "Exterminators", "the Chosen" warrior class.

[[Enigma Babylon One World Faith]] is the state religion of the totalitarian [[world government]] in the ''[[Left Behind]]'' series that ostensibly seeks to harmonise the remaining faiths on earth after the Rapture as portrayed in the novel.

''[[Battle Royale]]'', a Japanese novel by [[Koushun Takami]], describes an [[alternate timeline]] [[Japan]] as being in a police state. This Japan is known as the Republic of Greater East Asia (大東亜共和国 Dai Tōa Kyōwakoku).

''[[Colossus: The Forbin Project]]'' (1970) is a science fiction film based upon the 1966 novel Colossus, by Dennis Feltham Jones, about a massive, eponymous American defense computer becoming sentient and deciding to assume control of the world.

''[[Watership Down]]'' (1972), Richard Adams' famous novel about rabbits running away from their warren and building a Utopian society, features another warren, Efrafa, which is run like a police state. Each rabbit in Efrafa is given an identification mark, sentries are posted 24/7 around its borders to prevent escapes and patrols are sent out regularly to hunt down and imprison stray rabbits. Rabbits are allowed out in the open at certain times of day, and if they are caught outside without permission, they are punished – one form of punishment shown in the book involves ripping the ears off of the perpetrator.

[[The Running Man]] (part of the Bachman books series written by [[Stephen King]]), first published in 1982, depicts a dystopian United States in the year 2025; a film of the same name with [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]] released in 1987 (set in the year 2019) has a United States under a totalitarian police state where convicted felons participate on a television show to win a presidential pardon. The film version goes into more detail about how television controls a police state - including the use of computer-generated imagery to mislead viewers.

In 1988, Queensrÿche released ''[[Operation: Mindcrime]]'', a narrative [[concept album]] that proved a massive critical and commercial success. The album's story revolved around a junkie who is brainwashed into performing assassinations for an underground movement; the junkie ("Nikki") is torn over his [[misplaced loyalty]] to the cause and his love of a reformed hooker-turned-nun ("Mary," vocals by [[Pamela Moore]]) who gets in the way. "Mindcrime" has often been mentioned by critics alongside other notable concept albums like [[Pink Floyd]]'s ''[[The Wall]]'' and [[The Who]]'s ''[[Tommy (rock opera)|Tommy]]''. The band toured through much of 1988 and 1989 with several bands, including [[Def Leppard]], [[Guns N' Roses]] and [[Metallica]].

''[[Equilibrium (film)|Equilibrium]]'' (2002) is a science fiction/action film. Equilibrium is set in the futuristic, and dystopian city-state of Libria. In the year 2072, the leaders of the world sought to create a society free of conflict. It was determined that human emotion was the primary cause of conflict, and thus any and all emotionally stimulating material was banned. These materials are rated "EC-10" for "emotional content" (a reference to the MPAA film rating system[3]), and are typically destroyed by immediate incineration. Furthermore, all citizens of Libria are required to take regular injections, called "intervals," of an emotion-suppressing drug called Prozium, collected at the distribution centers known as "Equilibrium". Libria is governed by the Tetragrammaton Council, which is led by a reclusive figurehead known as "Father".

"[[The Minority Report]]" (1956) is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick first published in Fantastic Universe January 1956. It is about a future society where murders are prevented through the efforts of three mutants who can see the future. It was made into [[Minority Report (film)|a film]] in 2002.

In the [[Honorverse]] series of novels, the [[People's Republic of Haven]] is a classic (quasi-Communist) police state until the end of the ninth novel of the series, titled [[Ashes of Victory]]. Also, in more recent novels and stories of the series (and its spin-offs), the [[Solarian League]], despite being outwardly a [[democracy]], manifests many typical traits of a police state, especially in its outer territories (which are administered by the [[Office of Frontier Security]]).

"[[THX 1138]]" (1971) portrays a police state.

In Suzanne Collin's [[The Hunger Games]], a futuristic dystopian North America, now called Panem, consists of a ruling government called the Capitol who controls the remaining twelve districts, by forcing one boy and girl from each district to compete in a live broadcast show called The Hunger Games, in which the 24 children must fight to the death on live TV. Only one of them can survive and escape the life of the poor and starving for a life of riches and food.

In the [[Nickelodeon]] series ''[[The Legend of Korra]]'', the main setting, Republic City, shows characteristics of a police state in the oppression of the city's non-benders, including cutting out their power and enforcing curfews against them.


==See also==
==See also==

Revision as of 21:40, 13 September 2012

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A police state is one in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic, and political life of the population. 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.

The inhabitants of a police state experience restrictions on their mobility, and 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 which operates outside the boundaries normally imposed by a constitutional state.[3]

The first use of a state police force in the US, for example, was the very same year, 1865, where such a force was established in Massachusetts.[4] Up to this time, order in most societies was maintained spontaneously, on a local level, with some weak constabulary like a sheriff being called into action for specific incidents. As the maintenance of a standing police force became common in the late 19th and early 20th century, the term "police state" came to be used more commonly to refer only to when a police force was used "too" strenuously, in a "rigid and repressive" way, as under fascism, crony capitalism, and in retroactive application to oppressive/repressive historic incidents like the French Revolution and the Roman Empire.[5][6]

Definitional issues

Main article: List of indices of freedom
2008 Press Freedom Index rankings according to Reporters Without Borders.
2
Inner German border system in the early 1960s. Police states can be difficult to leave.
3
Third-generation inner German border system circa 1984.

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 identify itself as a police state. There are several non-governmental organizations that publish and maintain assessments of the state of freedom in the world, according to their own various definitions of the term, and rank countries as being free, partly free, or unfree using various measures of freedom, including political rights, economic rights, and civil liberties. 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.

Genuine police states are fundamentally authoritarian, and are often dictatorships. However the degree of government repression varies widely among societies. Most regimes fall into some middle ground between the extremes of civil libertarianism and totalitarianism.

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.

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 not becoming, a police state. One way to view the concept of the police state and the free state is through the medium of a balance or scale, where any law focused on removing liberty is seen as moving towards a police state, and any law which limits government oversight is seen as moving towards a free state.[7]

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 Fictional police states below).

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.

Examples of police state-like attributes

The Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy index map for 2008, with lighter colours representing more democratic countries. Countries with DI below 3 (clearly authoritarian) are black.
Democracy Index 2010.
Full democracies:
  9-10
  8-8.9
Flawed democracies:
  7-7.9
  6-6.9
  No data
 Hybrid regimes:
  5-5.9
  4-4.9
Authoritarian regimes:
  3-3.9
  2-2.9
  0-1.9
File:Vilnius KGB Wiretap Room.jpg
KGB telephone tapping room in Vilnius KGB Museum, Lithuania

As previously discussed, it is not possible to objectively determine whether a nation has become or is becoming a police state. As a consequence, to draw up an exhaustive list of police states would be inherently flawed. However, there are a few highly debated examples which serve to illustrate partial characteristics of a police state's structure. These examples are listed below.

The South African apartheid system was generally considered to have been a police state despite having been nominally a democracy (albeit with the Black African majority population excluded from the democracy).

The Soviet Union and its many satellite states, including North Korea and East Germany were notorious for their extensive and repressive police and intelligence services, with approximately 2.5% of the East German adult population serving (knowingly or unknowingly) as informants for the Stasi.

Nazi Germany, a dictatorship, was, at least initially, brought into being through a nominal democracy, yet exerted repressive controls over its people. Germany was a police state; using the SS/SA to assert control over the population in the 1930s

In Cuba, 22 journalists who attempted to publicise non-government authorised news remain imprisoned. Arrested in March 2003, the journalists are serving prison terms of up to 27 years. It is also reported that journalists not in prison are frequently threatened with the same fate.[8][unreliable source?]

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders ranked North Korea second last out of 168 countries in a test of press freedom.[9][unreliable source?] It has been reported that the only TV channel in North Korea predominately eulogises the country's past leaders Kim Jong Il and his father Kim Il Sung. As a result, some locals in Pyongyang have been quoted as stating that their leaders are gods.[10]

Western claims

United Kingdom

George Churchill-Coleman, who headed Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist squad in the United Kingdom, expressed his opinion that Britain was moving in the direction of a police state,[11] with biometric identity cards,[12][13] mass surveillance and detention without trial all having been introduced by the government. However, the Identity Cards Act 2006 has now been repealed (by the Identity Documents Act 2010). The UK has been described as "the most surveilled country" in the world.[14] Protests within a half-mile radius of the Houses of Parliament are illegal in the UK unless authorised by the Metropolitan Police.[15] Claims of police state behaviour have been dismissed by the UK government.[16]

United States

Free speech zones

Free speech zones have been used at a variety of political gatherings in the United States with the stated purpose of protecting the safety of those attending the political gathering, or for the safety of the protesters themselves. Critics, however, suggest that such zones are "Orwellian" and violate the First Amendment.[17][18]

Militarization of police

There has been a steady increase in the police being aided by and imitating the military including using their weapons and tactics.[19][20] Established in 1878 the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of the military for law enforcement and policing activities but this law has been continually violated as the military has been used for years for things such as DUI checkpoints and serving warrants in conjunction with the local or state police. Since 1990 the police have been militarized increasingly and Federal funding has helped this process with steep discounts for military gear for the police,[21] and after 9/11 this militarization has quickened at a concerning rate.[22] This militarization of the police force manifests as using military equipment, military style weapons such as assault rifles[23] armored vehicles (often purchased from the military),[21] helicopters and planes as well as the most recent addition, drones, all of which may be armed.[24]

Two American lawmakers have stated on the record that, in their opinion, Section 1031 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (NDAA) legalizes or authorizes martial law in the United States, additionally Senator Mark Udall (D-Colorado) stated "These provisions raise serious questions as to who we are as a society and what our Constitution seeks to protect...Section 1031 essentially repeals the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 by authorizing the U.S. military to perform law enforcement functions on American soil."[25]

Other constitutional issues

The Patriot Act has been used more than 11,000% more on non-terrorist related investigations than on investigations related to terrorists,[26] including drug cases, and political opponents and protesters.[27]

Australia

In 2010 the Western Australia state parliament proposed new "stop and search" laws that were criticised as being a step toward a police state.[28] The proposed new laws would have given Western Australian police the right to conduct searches without warrant or reason of suspicion. The laws were rejected by a parliamentary committee in October 2010, however the Western Australian premier Colin Barnett has stated that he will still be pushing for the laws with some amendments.[29]

Etymology

The term "police state" was first used in 1851, in reference to the use of a national police force to maintain order, in Austria.[30]

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.[citation needed]

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.

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").[31]

Fictional police states

Main article: List of fictional police states

Police states have been featured in a number of fictional media ranging from novels to films to video games.

See also

References

  1. ^ http://polisci.la.psu.edu/faculty/Casper/caspertufisPAweb.pdf
  2. ^ Bollen, K.A. (1992) Political Rights and Political Liberties in Nations: An Evaluation of Human Rights Measures, 1950 to 1984. In: Jabine, T.B. and Pierre Claude, R. "Human Rights and Statistics". University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-3108-2
  3. ^ A Dictionary of World History, Market House Books, Oxford University Press, 2000.
  4. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=M2NgAj4nFOwC&pg=PA406&lpg=PA406
  5. ^ http://www.flowofhistory.com/units/eme/16/FC105
  6. ^ http://pages.interlog.com/~gilgames/empire.htm
  7. ^ Police State (Key Concepts in Political Science), Brian Chapman, Macmillan, 1971.
  8. ^ "Press Group Warns of Specious New Arrests of Cuban Journalists". America.gov. 2006-09-19. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
  9. ^ "North Korea Rated World's Worst Violator of Press Freedom". America.gov. 2006-10-25. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
  10. ^ "Life in the secret state". BBC News. 2001-09-01. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
  11. ^ Travis, Alan (2005-01-28). "Britain 'sliding into police state'". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-05-12.
  12. ^ "The introduction of ID Cards". UK Government Home Office. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
  13. ^ "NO2ID – UK Anti-ID Card Campaign". UK Government Home Office. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
  14. ^ "Britain is 'surveillance society'". BBC News. 2006-11-02. Retrieved 2008-08-14.
  15. ^ "Arrests at Parliament protest ban". BBC News. 2005-08-07. Retrieved 2008-08-14.
  16. ^ "No 10 rejects police state claim". BBC News. 2007-02-08. Retrieved 2008-05-12.
  17. ^ Bailey, Ronald. Orwellian "Free Speech Zones" violate the constitution. Reason, February 4, 2004. Retrieved on January 3, 2007.
  18. ^ McNulty, Rebecca. Fla. College Student Successfully Fights Campus 'Free Speech Zone'. Foundation for Individual Rights in Education Student Press Law Center, June 28, 2005. Retrieved January 3, 2007.
  19. ^ Posel, Susanne. Specialized Military Police Deployed in America During Civil Unrest. Retrieved on 8-3-2012.
  20. ^ Taylor, Lawerence. Here Come the Feds: Marines at DUI Roadblocks. Retrieved on 8-3-2012.
  21. ^ a b Police 'Tank' Purchase Riles New Hampshire Town. Retrieved on 8-3-2012.
  22. ^ A Decade After 9/11, Police Departments Are Increasingly Militarized. Retrieved on 8-3-2012.
  23. ^ Council approves rifles for WPD. Retrieved on 8-3-2012.
  24. ^ Groups Concerned Over Arming Of Domestic Drones. Retrieved on 8-3-2012.
  25. ^ Smith, Dave NDAA 2012: Ron Paul Warns Bill Would Legalize Martial Law Retrieved on 8-3-2012.
  26. ^ Patriot Act Used to Fight More Drug Dealers than Terrorists. Retrieved 8-6-12.
  27. ^ How the USA PATRIOT Act redefines "Domestic Terrorism". Retrieved 8-6-12.
  28. ^ http://searchforyourrights.org/
  29. ^ http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/10/21/3044629.htm
  30. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, Third edition, January 2009; online version November 2010. <http://www.oed.com:80/Entry/146832>; accessed 19 January 2011.
  31. ^ The Police State, Chapman, B., Government and Opposition, Vol.3:4, 428–440, (2007). Accessible online at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119912141/abstract, retrieved 15th August 2008.

External links

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