Political repression
Encyclopedia
Political repression is the persecution
of an individual or group for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing their ability to take political life
of society
.
Political repression is sometimes used synonymously with the term political discrimination
(also known as politicism). It often is manifested through discriminatory
policies, such as human rights
violations, surveillance abuse
, police brutality
, imprisonment
, involuntary settlement
, stripping of citizen's rights
, lustration
and violent action such as the murder, summary execution
s, torture
, forced disappearance
and other extrajudicial punishment
of political activists, dissident
s, or general population.
Where political repression is sanctioned and organised by the state, it may constitute state terrorism
, genocide
, politicide or crimes against humanity. Systemic and violent political repression is a typical feature of dictatorship
s, totalitarian
states and similar regimes. In such regimes, acts of political repression may be carried out by secret police
forces, army, paramilitary
groups or death squad
s. Relevant activities have also been found within democratic contexts as well.
If political repression is not carried out with the approval of the state, a section of government may still be responsible. An example is the FBI
COINTELPRO
operations in the United States
between 1956 and 1971.
In some states, "repression" can be an official term used in legislation or the names of government institutions. For example, the Soviet Union
had a legal policy of repression of political opposition defined in the penal code
, and Cuba
under Fulgencio Batista
had a secret police
agency officially named the "Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities
."
http://www.tamilnet.com Srilanka has been graded as one of the worst Terrorists States in the modern world. In 2009 alone the Srilanka State military has murdered around 100,000 civilians from the ethnic Tamil Minority whose country Thamil Eelam has been occupied by force by the foreign Sinhala State through terror, genocide and robbery. Bribery, rape, torture, murder, extortions and all plundering of the Tamils lives by the occupying Sinhalese are no crimes according to the Constitution of the Srilanka State
Books
Persecution
Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another group. The most common forms are religious persecution, ethnic persecution, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these terms. The inflicting of suffering, harassment, isolation,...
of an individual or group for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing their ability to take political life
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
of society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
.
Political repression is sometimes used synonymously with the term political discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
(also known as politicism). It often is manifested through discriminatory
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
policies, such as human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
violations, surveillance abuse
Surveillance abuse
Surveillance abuse is the use of surveillance methods or technology to monitor the activity of an individual or group of individuals in a way which violates the social norms or laws of a society. Mass surveillance by the state may constitute surveillance abuse if not appropriately regulated....
, police brutality
Police brutality
Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....
, imprisonment
Imprisonment
Imprisonment is a legal term.The book Termes de la Ley contains the following definition:This passage was approved by Atkin and Duke LJJ in Meering v Grahame White Aviation Co....
, involuntary settlement
Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union
Forced settlements in the Soviet Union took several forms. Though the most notorious was the Gulag labor camp system of penal labor, resettling of entire categories of population was another method of political repression implemented by the Soviet Union. At the same time, involuntary settlement...
, stripping of citizen's rights
Lishenets
A lishenets , from Russian word лишение, "deprivation", properly translated in this context as a disenfranchised, was a person stripped of the right of voting in the Soviet Union of 1918 — 1936...
, lustration
Lustration
Lustration is the government process regulating the participation of former communists, especially informants of the communist secret police, in the successor political appointee positions or in civil service positions in the period after the fall of the various European Communist states in 1989 –...
and violent action such as the murder, summary execution
Summary execution
A summary execution is a variety of execution in which a person is killed on the spot without trial or after a show trial. Summary executions have been practiced by the police, military, and paramilitary organizations and are associated with guerrilla warfare, counter-insurgency, terrorism, and...
s, torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
, forced disappearance
Forced disappearance
In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...
and other extrajudicial punishment
Extrajudicial punishment
Extrajudicial punishment is punishment by the state or some other official authority without the permission of a court or legal authority. The existence of extrajudicial punishment is considered proof that some governments will break their own legal code if deemed necessary.-Nature:Extrajudicial...
of political activists, dissident
Dissident
A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....
s, or general population.
Where political repression is sanctioned and organised by the state, it may constitute state terrorism
State terrorism
State terrorism may refer to acts of terrorism conducted by a state against a foreign state or people. It can also refer to acts of violence by a state against its own people.-Definition:...
, genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
, politicide or crimes against humanity. Systemic and violent political repression is a typical feature of dictatorship
Dictatorship
A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...
s, totalitarian
Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
states and similar regimes. In such regimes, acts of political repression may be carried out by secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
forces, army, paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
groups or death squad
Death squad
A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign...
s. Relevant activities have also been found within democratic contexts as well.
If political repression is not carried out with the approval of the state, a section of government may still be responsible. An example is the FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
COINTELPRO
COINTELPRO
COINTELPRO was a series of covert, and often illegal, projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations.COINTELPRO tactics included discrediting targets through psychological...
operations in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
between 1956 and 1971.
In some states, "repression" can be an official term used in legislation or the names of government institutions. For example, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
had a legal policy of repression of political opposition defined in the penal code
Article 58 (RSFSR Penal Code)
Article 58 of the Russian SFSR Penal Code was put in force on 25 February 1927 to arrest those suspected of counter-revolutionary activities. It was revised several times...
, and Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
under Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was the United States-aligned Cuban President, dictator and military leader who served as the leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1944 and from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution....
had a secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
agency officially named the "Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities
Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities
The Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities was the secret police agency that Fulgencio Batista maintained in the 1950s, which gained a reputation for brutality in its fight against pro-Castro rebels.The bureau was headed by Mariano Faget, who had first gained fame as a Nazi hunter...
."
Data on human rights violation and state repression
There are currently a wide variety of databases available which attempt to measure, in a rigorous fashion exactly what governments do against those within their territorial jurisdiction. The list below was created and maintained by Prof. Christian Davenport at the Kroc Institute & the University of Notre Dame. These efforts vary with regard to the particular form of human rights violation they are concerned with, the source employed for the data collection as well as the spatial and temporal domain of interest.Global coverage
- http://ciri.binghamton.edu/"CIRI Human Rights Data ProjectCIRI Human Rights Data ProjectThe Cingranelli-Richards Human Rights Data Project annually rates the level of government respect for a variety of internationally recognized human rights. The CIRI data set currently contains quantitative indicators of 15 human rights for 195 countries, annually from 1981-2009. Each year, new...
, 1981-2006"]. by Profs David Cingranelli and David Richards - "Freedom in the World, 1976-2006" by Freedom House
- "Genocide & Politicide, 1955-2005" by Prof. Barbara Harff and the Political Instability Task Force
- "Political Terror Scale, 1976-2009 by Prof. Mark Gibney
- "Worldwide Atrocities Dataset, 1995-2007 by the Political Instability Task Force/KEDS
- "World Freedom Atlas, 1990-2006" - Mapping Program by Prof. Zachary Forest Johnson
Regional coverage
- "European Protest and Coercion, 1980-1995" by Prof. Ron Francisco
Selective coverage of state repression
- "The Kansas Event Data System (KEDS)" by Profs. Deborah “Misty” Gerner and Phill Schrodt
- "Intranational Political Interactions Project, 1979-1992" by Profs. David Davis and Will Moore
- "Minorities at Risk, 1945-2006" by the Center for International Development and Conflict Management
Country coverage of state repression
- "Guatemala, 1960-1996" by the International Center for Human Rights Research
- "Kosovo, 1999" by the Human Rights Data Analysis Group - Benetech
- "Rwanda, 1994" by Profs. Christian Davenport and Allan Stam - The Genodynamics Project
- "Sierra Leone, 1991-2000" by the Human Rights Data Analysis Group - Benetech
- "Timor-Leste, 1974-1999" by the Human Rights Data Analysis Group - Benetech
- "United States vs. the Black Panthers, 1967-1973" by Prof. Christian Davenport
- "United States vs. the Republic of New Africa, 1968-1974 by Prof. Christian Davenport
http://www.tamilnet.com Srilanka has been graded as one of the worst Terrorists States in the modern world. In 2009 alone the Srilanka State military has murdered around 100,000 civilians from the ethnic Tamil Minority whose country Thamil Eelam has been occupied by force by the foreign Sinhala State through terror, genocide and robbery. Bribery, rape, torture, murder, extortions and all plundering of the Tamils lives by the occupying Sinhalese are no crimes according to the Constitution of the Srilanka State
See also
- Amnesty InternationalAmnesty InternationalAmnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
- Death squadDeath squadA death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign...
- DenazificationDenazificationDenazification was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of any remnants of the National Socialist ideology. It was carried out specifically by removing those involved from positions of influence and by disbanding or rendering...
- DissidentDissidentA dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....
- Forced disappearanceForced disappearanceIn international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...
- Human rights abuse
- National Committee Against Repressive LegislationNational Committee Against Repressive LegislationThe Defending Dissent Foundation , previously known for many years as the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation and formed in 1960 as the National Committee to Abolish HUAC, is a national not-for-profit advocacy organization in the United States, dedicated to defending the right of...
- National securityNational securityNational security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
- Police statePolice stateA police state is one in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic and political life of the population...
- Political killing
- Preventive repressionPreventive repressionPreventive repression is political repression of political opponents before they actually carry out any activities that would threaten the current political system...
- PurgePurgeIn history, religion, and political science, a purge is the removal of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, from another organization, or from society as a whole. Purges can be peaceful or violent; many will end with the imprisonment or exile of those purged,...
- Restrictions on political partiesRestrictions on political partiesRestrictions on political parties have existed in many countries at various times. In Uganda, for instance, political parties were restricted in their activities from 1986; in the non-party "Movement" system instituted by Museveni, political parties continued to exist but could not campaign in...
- Secret policeSecret policeSecret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
- Worldwide Governance IndicatorsWorldwide Governance IndicatorsBased on a long-standing research program of the World Bank, the Worldwide Governance Indicators capture six key dimensions of governance between 1996 and present...
Further reading
Articles- Understanding Covert Repressive Action: The Case of the U.S. Government against the Republic of New Africa (186kb PDF file) by Christian Davenport, Professor, University of Maryland.
- State Repression and Political Order by Christian Davenport, Professor, University of Maryland.
- Police brutality on 12 years old girl outside her home for no reason Galveston, Texas.
Books
- Davenport, Christian (2007). State Repression and the Domestic Democratic Peace New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Davenport, Christian, Johnston, Hank and Mueller, Carol (2004). Repression and Mobilization Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Donner, Frank J. (1980). The Age of Surveillance: The Aims and Methods of America’s Political Intelligence System. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-40298-7
- Donner, Frank J. (1990). Protectors of Privilege: Red Squads and Police Repression in Urban America. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-05951-4
- Goldstein, Robert Justin. (1978). Political Repression in Modern America, From 1870 to Present. Boston, G. K. Hall, Cambridge, MA: Schenkman. ISBN 0-8467-0301-7
- Jensen, Joan M. Army Surveillance in America, 1775 - 1980. New Haven. Yale University Press. 1991. ISBN 0-300-04668-5. Book review retrieved April 3, 2006.
- Talbert, Jr. Roy. Negative Intelligence: The Army and the American Left, 1917 - 1941. Jackson. University Press of Mississippi, 1991. ISBN 0-87805-495-2. Book review retrieved April 3, 2006.
- Irvin, Cynthia L. "Militant Nationalism between movement and party in Ireland and the Basque Country