police state

Type: Concept

As of November 2026, police state has been mentioned in one podcast episode on Pod Save America (Jan 2026). Invoked to argue that some who claim to oppose government intrusion now tolerate aggressive federal enforcement and street executions.

A police state is a state whose government institutions exercise an extreme level of control over civil society and liberties. There is typically little to no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive, and the deployment of internal security and police forces play a heightened role in governance. A police state is a characteristic of authoritarian, totalitarian or illiberal regimes. Such governments are not exclusive to simply one-party states or dominant-p