The Police-State

Abstract

THE WAY THAT THE TERM ‘POLICE STATE’ ENTERED THE ENGLISH language is curious. It is simply the transliteration of the German term Polizeistaat. In German constitutional and administrative law the Polizeistaat was one of the triad of categories used to describe the characteristics of particular states. The other two categories were the Rechtsstaat and the Justizstaat. The Polizeistaat was the creation of 18th-century Prussia. The devastation of the Thuty Years War led the Prussian leaders to conclude that only a state based upon internal discipline, rigorously controlled, and economically self-sufficient could provide a proper basis for survival. This involved breaking the feudal powers of the aristocracy, substituting for them as the principal instrument of government a civil service wholly obedient and responsive to the rulers of the state, and creating a powerful army capable of protecting the heartland of Prussia, if necessary by wars of expansion. The permanent possibility of war became the basis of stable government, and stable government, even at the price of war, was the major blessing a state could bestow on its citizens.