Police States
A police state is a political system often defined by dictatorial rule, where authority is concentrated in the hands of an individual, family, political party, or military. Central to the functioning of a police state is the manipulation of information through censorship and propaganda, aimed at maintaining order and stability by shaping public perception. There are two primary types of police states: authoritarian and totalitarian. Authoritarian regimes focus mainly on retaining power, employing censorship to suppress dissent and control the media narrative. In contrast, totalitarian states pursue ideological goals alongside power retention, often striving toward a particular vision, such as global domination or communism.
Censorship in police states extends beyond news media to encompass all forms of cultural expression, including literature, art, and education, effectively using these mediums for state indoctrination. Citizens’ responses vary; some align with the regime, while others fearfully self-censor or engage in covert resistance. Despite oppressive measures, opposition can exist in secret, aiming to undermine state propaganda and promote dissent through underground networks. Understanding police states involves recognizing the delicate balance of control, compliance, and resistance within such systems.
Police States
Definition: Political systems controlled by leaders who rule by force
Significance: Through the use of censorship and propaganda, police states seek to engender conformity within their societies
Police states are political systems generally characterized by dictatorial rule, whether the regime that rules is led by an individual, a family, a political party, or the military. A critical component common to police state rule is the desire to control the information flow to citizens through censorship and propaganda campaigns. The main reason a police state engages in such tactics is to maintain order and stability within the society. The leadership seeks to create an obedient and docile citizenry by restricting and shaping the mass media to which citizens are exposed. In such cases, the state is less likely to face challenges to its rule from society at large.
Types of Police States
There are two different types of police states: authoritarian and totalitarian. An authoritarian police state is primarily only interested in maintaining power. An authoritarian regime does not want to be challenged within the country it rules so it engages in censorship and propaganda to justify and glorify its rule, and to prevent potential rivals from having access to the masses through the media. Examples of authoritarian police states would be the regimes led by Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Muammar al-Qaddafi in Libya.
A totalitarian police state, much like an authoritarian one, is also concerned with the maintenance of power. Totalitarian police states, however, have an ideological element that authoritarian police states lack. Maintenance of power is not enough for a totalitarian police state; progress toward an ideal or a utopian goal that the regime has must also be made. The ideological goal of totalitarian police states can vary. For example, for Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Party that ruled Germany from 1933 until 1945, the goal was global domination by a master race. For Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union from 1928 until 1953, the goal was advancement toward Communism. No matter the goal, totalitarian police states harness the mass media in an attempt to make progress toward the ideal envisioned by the leadership of the regime.
Targets for Censorship and Propaganda
The objects of censorship and propaganda in a police state are numerous. Most important, perhaps, are the news media. Police states want their citizens to hear information about events from abroad or at home only if it supports the regime. As a result, the sources of news in police states are either state owned or tightly controlled by the state. Only information that is viewed favorably by the regime is allowed to be reported uncensored. News that the regime feels is problematic is either not allowed to be reported at all, or is altered to put the leadership in the best possible light. The enemies of the regime are placed in the worst possible light. Thus in a police state, all forms of news media, including television, radio, newspapers, and magazines, are in the service of the state.
Police states do not limit their censorship and propaganda activities to the news media. Any potential source capable of transmitting political messages to citizens is targeted. Music, dance, poetry, literature, plays, opera, films, paintings, and sculpture are all subjected to censorship and propaganda campaigns. Religion and religious practices are censored by the state. The leaders in police states have rewritten history and ordered languages and alphabets to be altered or eliminated. Textbooks and curricula taught in school become means by which to indoctrinate, socialize, and control.
Agents of State Control
The bureaucracy necessary to impose the degree of censorship and propaganda found in police states is extensive. There are two types of bureaucratic entities: state directed unions and guilds to produce material for public consumption, and the agencies and departments that censor all work produced, whether by an agent of the state or a private citizen.
The purpose behind creating unions and guilds is to channel the efforts of citizens with particular interests and skills into the service of the state. In police states, if an individual has the skills and desires to be an artist, for example, the regime will provide a job and a living provided the artist produces works favorable to the state. The artist is required to join the state guild and take orders from the representative of the regime that directs the guild. If the artist does not want to join the guild and wants to work independently, the police state will not necessarily frown upon it if the work being produced is not offensive to the regime. Artists working independently that produce work offensive to the state, however, will not be tolerated by the regime and inevitably face harassment and incarceration.
Whether an individual is working for the state or not, any work produced must be submitted for approval to censors in a police state. The censors have the right to alter or reject the work if they feel the interests and goals of the regime are not being appropriately served. Common tactics used by censors in police states include book burning, electronic jamming of television and radio, seizure and closure of unfavored publishing houses, and prohibitions on live broadcasts because of an inability to censor them.
Responses of Police State Citizens
The response of citizens living in police states to the censorship and propaganda efforts of their regime is often mixed. Typically, some embrace the regime and see the censorship and propaganda efforts as necessary and legitimate. Some take the state up on its offers of employment and personal advancement and commit themselves to the service of the state. Others do not support the state but are sufficiently intimidated and fearful of the state that they engage in self-censorship by not protesting. Finally, in every police state, despite the grandest efforts of the regime, opposition to the leadership does exist. Those who resist often do so secretively because their personal well-being is always at risk. One goal of the opposition in police states is to attack and discredit the policies of censorship and the propaganda campaigns sponsored by the state. To do so, the opposition circumvents the authorities by furtively producing material and information hostile to the regime. What is produced is then disseminated through underground networks of sympathizers to as wide an audience as possible. The hope of the opposition is that in time enough citizens in the society will become so disgusted with the regime that mass revolt will be possible and the overthrow of the police state will become a reality.
Bibliography
Brzezinski, Zbigniew, and Carl Joachim Friedrich. Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy. 2nd ed. New York: Praeger, 1972. Print.
Cernak, Linda. Totalitarianism. Edina: ABDO, 2011. Print.
Chapman, Brian. Police State. New York: Praeger, 1970. Print.
Goldman, Leah. "The World's Biggest Police States." Business Insider. Business Insider, 18 May 2011. Web. 25 Nov. 2015.
Vatulescu, Cristina. Police Aesthetics: Literature, Film and the Secret Police in Soviet Times. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2010. Print.