police state

police state

English

Etymology

Likely a calque of German Polizeistaat adopted following the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819 and the ensuing Demagogenverfolgungen, culminating in the crackdown of liberal and anarchical movements popular in the 1840s during the German revolutions of 1848–1849. Equivalent to police +‎ state.

Noun

police state (plural police states)

1. (usually derogatory) A polity whose government exercises strict and repressive control of the people.
   • 1964 September 16, J. G. Sourwine, “Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigatee the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate Eighty-Ninth Congress First Session”, in hearing (US Senate), volume 10, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, page 674:

     You didn't know there is […] an active campaign, propaganda and otherwise, […] against all kinds of security procedures on the ground that they are all police state methods and all interfere with individual rights?

   • 1987, Alison Bechdel, “High Anxiety”, in Dykes to Watch Out For:

     [Mo:] But out there in the real world they're bombing abortion clinics... holding Nazi and KKK rallies... trying to quarantine people who might have AIDS. They're making secret weapons deals to illegally fund so-called "freedom fighters" and calling it "the Lord's work"!! We're living in a Protestant police state […]

   • 2015, “Police State”, in Police State, performed by Tropidelic:

     A gun up in our faces and they never gave a reason / The writing's on the wall, the politics are fake / Its clear to me we're livin' in a police state […] The prisons are for profit, its society's mistake / How macabre, we been living in a police state

Translations

nation whose government controls people by police

Afrikaans: polisiestaat sg Albanian: please add this translation if you can Arabic: دَوْلَة بُولِيسِيَّة‎ f (dawla būlīsiyya), دَوْلَة شُرْطِيَّة‎ f (dawla šurṭiyya) Armenian: ոստիկանական պետություն (ostikanakan petutʿyun), ոստիկանապետություն (hy) (ostikanapetutʿyun) Asturian: estáu policial m Basque: polizia estatu Belarusian: паліцэ́йская дзяржа́ва f (palicéjskaja dzjaržáva) Bulgarian: полице́йска държа́ва f (policéjska dǎržáva) Catalan: estat policia m Chinese: Mandarin: 警察國家／警察国家 (zh) (jǐngchá guójiā) Czech: policejní stát m Danish: politistat c Dutch: politiestaat (nl) m Esperanto: polica ŝtato Estonian: politseiriik Finnish: poliisivaltio (fi) French: État policier (fr) m Galician: estado policial m Georgian: პოლიციური სახელმწიფო (ṗoliciuri saxelmc̣ipo) German: Polizeistaat (de) m Greek: αστυνομικό κράτος n (astynomikó krátos), αστυνομοκρατία (el) f (astynomokratía) Hindi: पुलिस राज्‍य m (pulis rāj‍ya) Hungarian: rendőrállam (hu) Icelandic: lögregluríki n Indonesian: negara polisi (id) Italian: stato di polizia m Japanese: 警察国家 (けいさつこっか, keisatsu kokka) Korean: 경찰 국가(警察國家) (gyeongchal gukga) Latvian: policijas valsts f Lithuanian: policinė valstybė f Lombard: stat de polizia m Macedonian: полициска држава (policiska država) Malay: negara polis Norwegian: Bokmål: politistat m Nynorsk: politistat m Polish: państwo policyjne n Portuguese: estado policial m Romanian: stat polițienesc n Russian: полице́йское госуда́рство (ru) n (policéjskoje gosudárstvo) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: полицијска држава f Roman: policijska država f Slovak: policajný štát m Slovene: policijska država f Spanish: estado policial m Swedish: polisstat (sv) c Tagalog: estadong pulis Tamil: please add this translation if you can Turkish: polis devleti Ukrainian: поліці́йна держа́ва f (policíjna deržáva), поліце́йська держа́ва f (policéjsʹka deržáva) Vietnamese: nhà nước cảnh sát

See also

• secret police
• totalitarianism

Anagrams

• state police